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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, 

From a Photograph by Miley, 1885 



Life and Letters 

of 

Rev. George Boardman Taylor, D. D. 



George Braxton Taylor 






Lynchburg, Virginia 

J. P. Bell Company, Printers 

MCMVIH 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

NOV 23 1908 

Copyngnt tntry 
CLASS 4? XXc Mo. 



COPY' i. 



J3? T3 



Copyright, 1908, 
By George Braxton Taylor. 



FOREWORD 

About thirty years ago I spent a winter in Rome and 
for the first time met the Rev. Dr. George B. Taylor. I 
was sick in a strange city, and he visited me. I began 
then to realize how rich is the incidental ministry which 
the foreign missionary can perform to his own country- 
men, whom he chances to find in need and pain, like ships 
that pass in the night. From that time his life touched 
mine at different points, and I ever learned more deeply 
to admire his strenuous and abstemious nature. There 
could hardly be a more perfect blending of saint, scholar 
and gentleman. I used to attend his Sunday services, 
and the vision of his pale but glowing features and his 
delicate frame, protected by a gray shawl against the tomb- 
like chilliness of the locale where his disciples met, will 
never fade away from my remembrance. 

When the English troops made their famous charge up 
Spion Kop, attaining its summit only to be swept down 
by the murderous cross-fire of the Boers, they had left 
Major Ross in camp weak and unable to walk. But we 
are told that rumors of the desperate conflict in which his 
regiment was involved must have reached the hospital tent 
in which the sick man lay, for at three o'clock that after- 
noon the orderly reported that his bed was empty. How 
his gallant spirit drove his weak body up the long climb, 
across the lead-swept plateau, and into the firing line, 
no man knows, for none then saw him; but at dusk his 



FOREWORD 

body was found on the crest where his company had 
struggled through the day. In some such way Dr. Taylor's 
unconquerable soul pushed his frail body through all the 
isolation and shock and strain incident to the part which 
he took in the establishment of Protestantism in the 
citadel of papacy, just at that interesting period when 
the temporal power of the Pope was ended, and Pome for 
the first time in her history flung her gates wide open to 
the gospel. 

It is difficult to estimate the value of such a life. Our 
Master does not measure our work, but weighs it. 
Foundation laying is always slow and inconspicuous. 
Who can tell how much, in Italian thought, the swing of 
the pendulum from Romanism towards Atheism has been 
retarded by such a life as Dr. Taylor's, and how far it 
is due to his labors that we find the minds of the Italians 
that throng to our shores hospitable to Protestant ideas ! 
Success and suffering are vitally interrelated. If you 
suffer without succeeding, it is that others may succeed 
after you; if you succeed without suffering, it is because 
others suffered before you. 

Edward Judson. 
53 Washington Square, New York. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Early Years 7 

II. Baltimore Pastorate — Marriage 29 

III. First Pastorate in Staunton — Civil War 41 

IV. " Reconstruction Period" — Chaplain at the Univer- 

sity of Virginia — To Europe 88 

V. Second Pastorate in Staunton — Departure for Rome 134 

V[. First Years in Rome — Rome Chapel 168 

VII. First Visit to America — Mrs. Taylor's Death — Sec- 
ond Chaplaincy at the University of Virginia. . . 216 

VIII. Home Life — Mission Affairs — Chapels Dedicated — 

Journeys to Sicily, Sardinia and Switzerland 249 

IX. Visit to America — Literary Work — Theological 

School 298 

X. Last Visit to America — Death 339 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

1. From a Photograph by Miley, 1885 Frontispiece 

2. Staunton Church, Rotunda (University of Virginia), 

Franklin Square Church, Rome Chapel Facing Chap. Ill 

3. From a Photograph by Miley, about 1871 " IV 

4. Parlour, Via Giulio Romano, Rome, about 1900 " IX 

(From a Kodak) 

y 

5. Last Picture — Berne, 1903 " X 

(From a Kodak) 



LIFE AND LETTERS 

OF 

REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 



CHAPTER I 

Early Years 



Happy those early days, when I 
Shined in my early infancy! 
Before I understood this place 
Appointed for my second race, 
Or taught my soul to fancy aught 
But a white celestial thought. 

— Vaughan. 
The spirit of a youth 
That means to be of note, begins betimes. 

— Shakespeare. 
+ 

A few years ago an American clergyman and his two 
daughters were journeying from Poland to Italy. They 
spent a day at the beautiful twin city on the Danube, 
Budapest, guests of the famous Hotel Hungaria. The 
next day, on the train, they fell into conversation with a 
fellow-countryman who had travelled in almost all lands. 
He, too, had been a guest the night before under the 
same roof as they. The talk turning to hotels, which 
have so much to do with our comfort when we are journey- 
ing, the stranger declared that in all his wanderings the 
finest hotels he had found were the "Hotel Hungaria' 7 at 
Budapest, and "The Jefferson" at Richmond, Virginia. 
Upon this the clergyman announced, with no small degree 
of pride and pleasure, that Richmond was his native city. 

The clergyman was George Boardman Taylor, and he 
was fond of adopting Paul's language and declaring that 
he was "a citizen of no mean city." To the very end of 



8 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

his life, in his far-away home in the city by the Tiber, 
he always heard with keen delight accounts of the progress 
and prosperity of the city on the James. Here in a house 
on the corner of Fourth and Grace streets, where, the 
Grace Street Presbyterian Church now stands, on Decem- 
ber 27th, 1832, he first saw the light, and was named 
George Boardman in honor of the consecrated missionary 
who just a little while before had laid down his life in 
distant Burmah, and who has been called the "Apostle to 
the Karens." His father, James B. Taylor, though born 
in England, had been brought to this country when still 
an infant. He was a man of strong intellect and great 
vigor and will power, yet withal gentle and mild in his 
manner. He never had college and university and 
seminary training, but he wrote and spoke with remark- 
able force, simplicity and clearness, and was not unfamiliar 
with the masterpieces of English literature. In 1832 he 
had been pastor of the Second Baptist Church some eight 
years. His wife was of the distinguished Williams family 
of New England, descended from a line of pious Congre- 
gational ministers. The second child born to these parents 
was a son, and the name he received suggests the religious 
atmosphere of the home into which he had come. The 
six children who were born into this home, three daughters 
and three sons, all of whom lived to see their own 
children men and women, were members of a family 
where "plain living and high thinking" were the order of 
the day. During the early childhood of the oldest son, a 
comfortable house of ten rooms with a large yard and 
garden was purchased. This yard afforded an ample 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. \) 

space for the children's games, and it was there that 
George and his sister Jane used to amuse themselves 
playing college, naming the school, whose patrons they 
were, ''the College of George and Jane," in imitation of 
a venerable institution not far away. This house is thus 
referred to in ''Richmond in Bygone Days" : 

"An antique dwelling, half brick, half wood, with the 
square on which it stood on the south side of Main, between 
Second and Third streets, was the residence many years 
ago of Major Andrew Dunscombe, a soldier of the Revo- 
lution and a gentleman of the olden time. He was, I think, 
a Master in Chancery of Judge Wythe's court, and, if I 
mistake not, he erected Goodall's Tavern (the Indian 
Queen), since called Washington and now Monument" 

Good books abounded in this home. Most liberally 
were they provided for the children, regardless of cost, 
and this in a day when they were far more expensive than 
they are to-day. Some parents are lavish in their expendi- 
ture of money for clothes and food, but they starve the 
minds of their children. Not so in this home. To the third 
generation not a few handsome volumes have come down 
to bear witness to the mental pabulum that these children 
fed upon. For example, George, on March 15th, 1848, 
when he was a little over fifteen years old, received from 
his father Chambers' Encyclopaedia of English Literature, 
in two large volumes. Notice, too, that this was at neither 
birthday nor Christmas. Buying good books was evi- 
dently an everyday occurrence in this home. No wonder 
that George became as familiar with books as a stable 
boy is with horses. At four years of age he was reading 



10 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the New Testament, thus establishing a precedent which 
some of his descendants have found burdensome. 

When George was a child of seven summers, his father 
was appointed chaplain to the University of Virginia, 
he being the second Baptist to hold this position. On the 
journey towards Charlottesville, the child saw, possibly 
at Louisa Court House, a jail. He asked his mother 
why that house had iron bars across the windows. His 
mother explained that people who took things that did 
not belong to them were put into that house. All at once 
the child became very silent and very serious: "Mama, 
will they put me in there ? The other day when you were 
not looking I took a lump of sugar out of the sugar dish." 

At the University, as in those days the parsonage 
had not been built, the chaplain lived in the house on the 
Lawn afterwards occupied by Dr. Basil L. Gildersleeve 
and at present the home of Prof. A. H. Tuttle. Although 
the chaplaincy lasted only a year, the University made a 
deep impression upon George, though he never dreamed 
that years afterwards he would twice occupy the position 
his father was filling. 

When his father went to see the experiments of 
Professor Emmett in Chemistry, George would go along 
and the janitor would dust, and bring out for his use, an 
insulating stool with glass legs. If George's legs were 
scarcely long enough for the benches in the Chemistry 
lecture room, they were long enough and strong enough 
to enable him to accompany his father on many a tramp 
"over Observatory Mountain and Lewis Mountain, or 
through the fields, plucking the honeysuckle or wild-ivy 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 11 

and starting the bird from her nest," the eyes of the 
father and child "meantime feasting on the red fields 
inlaid with emerald forests, contrasting beautifully with 
each other and with the blue sky and distant Blue Ridge 
Mountains." 

After the year at the University Mr. Taylor returned 
to Richmond to become pastor of the Grace Street Baptist 
Church, and so, until he left home to teach and to go to 
the University as a student, George's home was Richmond. 
Not a few of the anecdotes which come to us from this 
period of his life breathe that love of adventure 
and quiet courage which in later life were to help him in 
many important and trying experiences. Preachers' sons 
are often supposed to be effeminate and unable to defend 
themselves as other boys do, nor did his companions make 
a mental exception in favor of George until one day he 
kicked down a flight of steps an urchin who had presumed 
too far ; after this, his pluck and grit were not questioned. 

From time immemorial Richmond boys have been 
famous swimmers, partly because James River just above 
Richmond, with its falls full of treacherous rapids, offers at 
once a place for natatorial sport and an unusual scope for 
skill and agility in the water. The boys were allowed by 
their school teacher to go to the river at recess, with the 
understanding that if they were not back on time they 
were to receive a stroke on the hand from the ferule for 
every moment they were tardy. One day George left 
his knife on the bank and went back for it, with the 
result that he was almost an hour late. Before the whole 
school he stood and took his punishment like a man, only 



12 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

pleading now and then to be allowed to hold out the other 
hand for awhile. His grandfather lived five miles or so 
out in the country, and thither the boy often went for a holi- 
day as well as at other times. It was probably on one of 
these trips that he was so severely bitten by a dog that the 
scar on his leg went with him through life. 

In December, 1833, Richmond College was moved from 
the country to the place it now occupies, and when George 
was still not fourteen years old he was already one of its 
students. Dr. Robert Ryland was the president of the 
College, Bennett Puryear Professor of Chemistry, and, 
for a season, Charles L. Cocke, afterwards the founder of 
Hollins Institute, was one of George's teachers. In 1846, 
on a long tour he was making through the South on behalf 
of the Foreign Mission Board, Mr. Taylor, writing home 
to his wife and telling how he longed to see his little 
family, made this reference to his oldest son: 

"I would be willing to stroll out as far as the College, 
tired as I am of travelling, for the sake of looking into 
George's face. I 'reckon' he is as busy as he can well be. 
Mr. Cocke says in his letter to me that George can be at 
the head of his class, and it would not at all surprise me 
if in peeping into the school room I should find him there." 

The professor of Chemistry was in the habit of ad- 
ministering occasionally laughing gas to his students. The 
story goes that upon one of these occasions young Taylor, 
always a good jumper, and now rendered abnormally active 
by the gas, cleared the high fence behind which Professor 
Puryear had, by way of precaution, stationed himself, 
and gave his teacher a hot chase across the campus to 



KEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 13 

his house. Dr. Ryland was fond of trying to trap the 
boys with hard questions. When he asked young Taylor 
how he pronounced a certain word, the answer he got, 
uttered in a serious tone, was: "Dr. Ryland, I never use 
that word." It was at this period of his life that the 
young collegian was one of a merry party of youths and 
maidens invited to take tea at the home of one of his 
father's members. When the party came to the table, the 
hostess called on him to ask the blessing. What must 
have been the surprise and suppressed amusement when 
they all heard him say : "I never do such things !" 

While at Richmond College George B. Taylor and 
William D. Thomas were intimate friends. Both were 
of a philosophical turn of mind. On their long walks 
away out into the country, in turn they would speak at 
the top of their voices to imaginary audiences. In the 
Mu Sigma Rho literary society, likewise, Taylor entered 
the arena of debate, his whole being kindling into en- 
thusiasm. In 1851 the third graduating class of Rich- 
mond College went forth from their alma mater. A 
programme of the order of exercises is still in existence 
and gives the list of graduates and the subjects of their 
addresses as follows : The Reformation, William S. Bland, 
King and Queen; The Scholar, Morton B. Howell, Rich- 
mond ; The Influence of Circumstances on Genius, George 
W. Keesee, Henrico; The Tolerance of Reform, George 
B. Taylor, Richmond ; The Relations of Animal and Vege- 
table Life, William D. Thomas, Richmond. All of this 
class have passed away, save Morton B. Howell, who is a 
distinguished member of the Nashville bar. 



14 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

After his graduation at Richmond College, Mr. Taylor, 
then in his nineteenth year, taught for one session in 
the "Fork" neighborhood, Fluvanna County, what was 
popularly known in Virginia as "an old field school." 
This sojourn in Fluvanna was destined to mark an epoch 
in his life, and the memory of him and his work has not 
yet faded among those whom he taught and ministered to 
in other ways. With this his first protracted absence from 
his father's roof-tree began that series of long, frequent, 
charming letters to his loved ones which was to continue 
through his life and to be, for the lives of many, like the 
clear, refreshing, ever-flowing, life-giving waters from a 
splendid mountain spring. Through his letters we catch 
some glimpses of the teacher and his school. Under date 
of July 18th, 1851, he wrote to one of his brothers: 

"The school house is about a mile from here. I walk over 
in the morning with seven of my sixteen scholars. The 
boys carry a large basket of dinner, and a jug of milk 
which is put into the spring to keep cool till lunch time. 
At the school house I stay till 4.30 or 5. Carry a cane 
all the time. Occupy my armchair with equal honor to 
my own station and terror to my scholars. My boys have 
several times brought me peaches or apples. Hope I 
may not have to engraft any thing of the peach on them. 
Six of my scholars are girls ! They are. I have 
them play to themselves. A large snake frightened them 
at play in the leaves yesterday at recess. They were 
making houses. I sent one of the boys to kill it. Yester- 
day after school at the earnest solicitation of my boys I 
accompanied them to the Rivanna to bathe." 



EEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 15 

In a letter of the same date to his father he writes : 
"I open school at 8.30 and close at 4.30; giving ten 
minutes recess at ten, ninety minutes at 12, and ten 
minutes more at 3.15. Don't I have quite a siege? The 
parents would like it better for me to keep from 7.30 to 
5 or later. But that wouldn't be just to myself, and I 
will not do it. As it is, the confinement and constant 
engagement is quite enough for me, and I am satisfied 
some of the children are having their spirits broken by 
such continued sitting. ... I can say of the last 
two mornings : 

'I saw the glorious sun arise.' 

Had to rise myself at 5.15. Secured nearly an hour be- 
fore breakfast, which occurs from 8 to 6.15. I want to 
try to get at least four hours of study every day — from 
5 to 6, 7 to 8, 12.30 to 1, 5.30 to 7. Am reading a work 
on physiology which I have long intended to become ac- 
quainted with. Commenced law this morning." 

This last statement called forth from his father in 
reply these words : 

"So you have commenced the study of the law ? Do 
you really think you will be employed in the business of 
pleading before civil courts and on behalf of the earthly 
interests of your fellow-men? I do not object to the 
occupancy of your mind in this way, but it would be a 
matter of thankfulness to me if it was the will of the great 
Head of the Church to employ you as a pleader with men 
to be reconciled to Him." 

It was to be as the father wished, and when one sees the 
devout, strong religious feeling which breathed in several 



16 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

letters written even before his life in Fluvanna, the wonder 
is, not that he became a preacher, but that he ever thought 
of the law at all. 

With his younger brother, James, one of his pupils, 
he lived at the home of Silas B. Jones, whose children 
were in his school. The only complaint Mr. Jones had 
against the teacher was that he could not sing! Mr. 
Taylor made himself useful elsewhere besides in his school. 
It was a time of great temperance agitation and en- 
thusiasm, and he was much in demand for temperance 
addresses. Once at a temperance rally and barbecue, 
just as he was about to conclude his address, the one in 
charge of the arrangements pulled his coat-tail and asked 
him if he could speak awhile longer, as the ox was not 
yet fully roasted. He was equal to the occasion, as his 
supply of suitable anecdotes was abundant, and his speech 
flowed on till dinner was ready. His voice was heard in 
the church as well. 

Indeed, the brethren were so much pleased with him 
and his exhortations — if his addresses were not to be called 
sermons — that one day, when he was absent, the Fork 
Church licensed him to preach. So his career as a preacher 
may be said to have begun. Like Dr. Jeter, he used to 
say in later years that he always planned to take a good 
long time and deliberately decide whether he would 
preach, but having once gone to work, he was so busy 
preaching that he never had time to decide whether he 
would give his life to preaching. The following extract 
from one of his letters is not so much out of harmony with 
the foregoing as it might seem at first blush : 



BEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 17 

"I have been to two candy pullings within the past 
week, and pullings they were, too, and in a different from 
the ordinary sense. For when the candy attains some 
degree of whiteness everybody snatches from everybody else 
and grab game is the order of the evening. The first 
time I enjoyed myself considerably, but on the latter 
occasion I left off my Christian dignity and participated 
in the prevailing vapidity and frivolity. I have been 
ashamed and mortified ever since. Only wish that those 
who saw my levity could be cognizant of my remorse too." 

The next three years of his life Mr. Taylor spent as 
a student at the University of Virginia, which seat of 
learning had then been established some twenty-seveai 
years. The affection which Mr. Jefferson had for this 
school is gauged by the fact that one of the three things 
he selected for his tombstone concerning himself was this : 
"Father of the University of Virginia." The broad and 
thorough scholarship, the honor system and the elective 
scheme of studies are some of the features incorporated 
by Jefferson which have helped to make the Virginia 
University a mighty force, especially in the South, but 
also to remoter bounds. Mr. Jefferson called from Europe 
the first professors. Among them was George Long, who 
after several years returned to his native land to occupy 
a chair in the new University of London. He carried with 
him, however, as a souvenir of this land, a Virginia wife. 
Jefferson's plan had been that the professors should 
occupy the upper rooms of the pavilions, as the resi- 
dences on the Lawn were first called, the students to 
gather for class work in the rooms below ; but as the pro- 



18 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

fessors would not follow his plans and remain bachelors, 
the classes were soon driven to seek other quarters. Mr. 
Long suggested, as his successor in the chair of Ancient 
Languages, Gessner Harrison, one of his students, then 
only twenty-one years old, and he was elected. "In the 
opinion of many, who from a long life and distinguished 
position have had opportunities for judging, Gessner Har- 
rison may be said to have done more than any one man, 
with the single exception of Mr. Jefferson, in raising the 
standard of education throughout the South." While 
Mr. Taylor and his fellow-students were greatly influenced 
and impressed by Gessner Harrison, there were other 
giants in those days, such as William H. McGuffey, Albert 
T. Bledsoe, William B. Rogers, J. L. Cabell and John B. 
Minor. Not only the professors but the place itself was 
inspiring. Many have been reminded of Italy as at 
sunset they have stood at "Monticello" and looked towards 
the University and the Blue Ridge beyond; then the 
buildings, each modelled after some classical edifice, were 
characterized by a unity and harmony scarcely found any- 
where else on this continent at that time or for a third 
of a century thereafter. 

Here, then, Mr. Taylor spent three very busy, three 
very helpful years. He had never been strong 
physically, and the many burdens he assumed during 
these years not only cost him his Master of Arts degree, 
but probably sent him out to his life work handicapped. 
One is amazed to learn from his letters what he under- 
took and what he accomplished. Of course he gave first 
place to his studies. Honesty, if not religion, dictated 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 19 

this. Mathematics was by no means his fort 1 ', yet an allu- 
sion in one of his letters reveals the fact that Dr. Bledsoe 
had given him on his report a good mark for this study. 
In Latin we find him one of twenty-seven who passed 
while thirty-seven failed. He tells in one of his letters 
how Dr. Harrison called on him once, the day after he 
had been away and missed a lecture. He says : 

"The morning after my return here, Dr. Harrison took 
occasion to question me on the lecture before, delivered 
during my absence. It so happened, by good luck, or 
Providence, that I had gotten the points from a fellow- 
student, so that with my general acquaintance with the 
subject I was able to answer quite satisfactorily. A very 
desirable thing, when one is so seldom questioned." 

In the class of Moral Philosophy Mr. Taylor must have 
taken particularly high rank, and he was one of a coterie 
in the class who thoroughly enjoyed the discussion led by 
Dr. McGuffey of the great problems which present them- 
selves in the realm of moral and mental science. Mr. 
Taylor was a leader in the Washington Society^, taking 
many of its honors, and upon the back door of this hall 
can still be read, unless it has been very recently erased, 
his name, put there not by his hand put possibly by some 
over zealous friend. He was president of the Washington 
Literary Society during the session of 1853-4, and on 
February 22nd the anniversary orator. On this occasion 
Washington's Farewell Address was read by R. M. 
Mallory, of Brunswick County, Virginia. 

He was a distinct factor in the Christian life of the 
University, being most tactful and successful in his 



20 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

efforts to win his fellow-students for Christ. A gentleman, 
now living, says that when as a youth he was a clerk in 
a book store in Richmond, a student of the University of 
Virginia came in, asking for certain religions bonks. Hi 
had been directed to these books by George B. Taylor, his 
fellow-student. He became a Christian and has for many 
years been a distinguished professor in one of our Southern 
colleges. ISTor were his labors for Christ confined to the 1 
University. He seems to have taken an active part in 
the church in Charlottesville, making missionary talks, 
teaching in the Sunday school, and now and then, towards 
the end of his course, preaching. He tells, in one of his 
letters, as follows, how he went back to the neighborhood 
of the Fork, some twenty miles away, to preach: 

"I feel Mondayish rather and excusablv I think. Satur- 
day, after attending lectures, I rode on horseback to the 
Fork . . . and yesterday after preaching came back 
through any quantity of rain and mud, arriving here, by 
a most fatiguing ride, after dark. The wonder is that I 
am not sick to-day. I was agreeably surprised to find any 
congregation out, as the morning was so rainy and 
threatening. We had a snug little time. I talked from 
the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican." 

Yet other calls were made upon him for work along 
similar lines. In one letter he writes: 

" To-morrow a. m. we have that Sunday-school meeting, 
and I have engaged for a funeral service of a colored 
woman in the p. m." 

In another letter he tells of sitting up with an old man 
who was sick, saying: 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 21 

"I have watched with him two nights — a service most 
cheerfully rendered, except that in these days of stand- 
ing all-day examinations, and preparing for them, one is 
hardly able to sit up at night and be very vigorous during 
the day. They thought the old gentleman was dying the 
other day and called me in to witness his will — a thing 
I never did before. While sitting up Sunday night I 
took a general review of my life and found it pleasant 
to call up many bygone scenes. I could distinctly re- 
member much of the distant and long-forgotten past and 
could see in their old appearance many objects which 
have greatly changed." 

In still another letter he speaks of attending the funeral 
of a colored man. Now he is taking part in the service 
of the Lord's Supper at the Charlottesville Church and 
now returning from preaching in the country. During 
at least a part of his University life he was pastor of the 
Mountain Plain Church, and it was at the call of this 
church that he was ordained to the gospel ministry, the 
services taking place in the Charlottesville Baptist meet- 
ing-house, James B. Taylor, his father, and John A. 
Broadus, being members of the presbytery. He sat with 
great delight under the preaching of John A. Broadus r 
who, after being assistant in Ancient Languages at the 
University of Virginia for a brief period, was now serving 
as pastor, the only regular charge he ever had. At this 
time he heard for the first time Dr. William F. Broaddus, 
the remarkable uncle of the Charlottesville pastor. In 
later life Mr. Taylor writes thus of these experiences : 

"My first sight of Dr. William F. Broaddus was at 



22 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Charlottesville in the early fifties, when he had just 
returned from a stay, of several years, in Kentucky, and, 
with an agency for Columbian College, was visiting his 
nephew and helping him in a protracted meeting. I had 
often heard Drs. Fuller and Jeter, and was at that time 
sitting Sunday morning and night entranced under the 
preaching of John A. Broadus, which for popular power 
has scarcely been equalled since, even by himself. But 
here was something quite new in style, attractive and 
powerful. . . . Honored with an interview, I found 
Dr. Broaddus quite accessible and genial, and then be- 
gan a mutual friendship, which, favored also by circum- 
stances, became more intimate than from the difference 
in our ages would have seemed possible. 

'We talked with open heart and tongue, 

Affectionate and true, 
A pair of friends, though I was young, 

And Matthew seventy-two.' 

But Dr. Broaddus was not then seventy-two by a good 
many years, seeming still in his later prime." 

Mr. Taylor found time for social life, and through his 
letters we catch many glimpses of him "in lighter vein" ; 
yet there was also the deeper current of religious thought 
and a conscientiousness, drawing near at times to morbid 
introspection and moroseness. The danger-land was, 
however, never entered, and long before his life had 
turned towards its decline, his Christian courage and 
cheerfulness had more than won the day. His letters to 
his sisters often tell of his visits to young ladies or allude 
to some of his lady friends in Richmond. To the end of 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 23 

his life he very greatly enjoyed the society of charming 
women, and the reply he made once to his younger son, 
years afterwards, tallies with what may be read between 
the lines of these letters of his student days. One day he 
asked this son who his sweetheart was. The son answered 
rather curtly that he did not have one. To this his father 
replied: "How then can you be my son, for there was 
never a time when I was a youth that I did not have a 
sweetheart !" 

He refers thus, to a !N"ew Year present some fair one 
had sent him: 

"I should not omit to tell you that I received a hand- 
some pair of slippers from Miss . She made them 

entirely herself. Says she makes her own shoes — that it's 
quite the fashion for ladies to do that now. A wholly 
new idea to me." 

A love affair of one of his young brother ministers is 
thus alluded to in a letter to one of his sisters : 

"If you were here, I would let you read a letter I have 
just received from a young brother minister touching 
among other points on an expedition recently made 'in 
search of a wife.' He did not push matters to the point 
of popping the question. He says, not being favorably 
impressed — others say, thinking 'twas no use." 

In that day athletics did not have such prominence in 
college life as now, but at least once Mr. Taylor went to 
his supper with tingling cheeks and keen appetite. Let 
him tell the episode himself: 

"I repent all my complaints as to our rigorous climate 
and retract all my abuse of the snow and ice. Would you 



24 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

know why my sentiments have undergone such a change? 
I will tell you. Last night as I was dragging my weary 
body home from a walk and as Luna was coming out 
gloriously, I espied several students sliding (on ex tempore 
sleds) down the hill leading from my room to the Kotunda. 
The idea struck me to slide some too, so immediately I 
seized one of said vehicles, crying out, 'I want to ride,' 
without even saying so much as 'by your leave,' to the 
proprietor, and had dragged it up to the summit of the hill 
before I thought what cavalier acting that was. I apolo- 
gized ab imo pectore — that means heartily — the good- 
natured student said, 'Go it.' I did go it, and before reach- 
ing the end of my row got fully into the merits of the exer- 
cise — called out to 'chum,' with whom I was walking, not to 
wait for me, I should slide for the next half hour — made 
for my room and returned with a sled of my own — being 
nothing more or less than a bottomless 'split bottom.' 
'Split bottom' is the genus — 'bottomless' the differentia, 
to use technical language. The modus operandi being to 
turn the chair on its back, sit on the rounds — where short- 
legged people sometimes put their feet when using the 
chair as such, and guide with feet sticking out in front. 
Boyishly, joyously I played a la Russian, dragging up 
and flying down. The sport was social and I picked quite 
a respectable acquaintance with the young men engaged, 
whom I had often seen but had not gotten acquainted with 
before. The track could not have been finer, a beautiful 
slide the length of a Richmond square and a wide pave- 
ment — the snow beaten hard and smooth. I went into 
my aristocratic supper with a rosebud on my cheek and 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 25 

with a lighter heart. So now you know by this long 
story why I will no more quarrel with the snow. To-day 
has been very warm and to-night, alas, is cloudy ! I fear 
I have taken my last ride. The place is much too public 
for day exercise." The words which follow ought not 
to be omitted: "But here I am writing as merrily away 
as if I hadn't been at it all day in Chemistry examination 
and didn't feel exceedingly as Jonah did when in a half- 
swallowed state, 'down in the mouth.' I'll quit it — write 
my Spanish exercise and off to bed." 

The following paragraph from a letter to a brother 
many years his junior is in quite another strain: 

"I could not realize what my parents and teachers used 
to tell me, and why should I expect you all to be any better ? 
But, oh my dear boy, I speak it with feeling, do not 
wait till you are eighteen or twenty before you begin to 
learn : but thoroughly master your studies, now, every day, 
and go right on improving the rich opportunities which 
you enjoy. What I say of intellectual acquirements and 
habits of study is emphatically applicable to Christian 
character. Begin now and daily seek by prayer' and watch- 
fulness to restrain your evil passions and cultivate habits 
of piety. I rejoice that I can write to you as a believer 
in Jesus, for I know that even amid the temptations of 
youth the gospel has guiding, restraining, purifying in- 
fluence. Ever seek to live under that so blessed influence. 
My feelings have carried me off thus and you must take 
what I say as coming right from my heart, and not at all 
in the light of a lecture, though I know you would take 
even that in good part." 



26 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

In another letter to the same brother an incident is 
narrated which reminds us that the country then was even 
more sparsely settled than to-day. Mr. Taylor wrote : 

"I heard something the other day which shocked me 
much. An old woman who lives some few miles from here, 
in the Ragged Mountains, and who has been in this room 
with her chestnuts to sell, was killed last week by a bear. 
Her body was found on the road to Charlottesville, half 
devoured and badly mangled. The bear, which it is sup- 
posed is a sort of stranger, has been seen several times 
prowling about. He probably attacked the old woman as 
she was on her way to town. I told 'chum' last night we 
ought to shut the door and lock it, or maybe he might 
take it into his head to quarter with us." 

Another incident in his life preserved in a fragment 
of a letter may not have occurred at this period, but it 
accords with the spirit of the story just given. Mr. 
Taylor had gone, from the country home where he was 
staying, to the post office. Upon starting for the return 
walk, it being late, he decided to try a short cut across 
the mountain. All through life he was fond, in his walks, 
of discovering a new way to come back and his "bump 
of locality" was so good that he did not often lose his way. 
Here is the story, however, of how once he was lost : 

"My conductor left me 'solitary and alone.' He told 
me something about keeping down a fence, crossing a 
branch, ascending a hill and then striking the road. 
Mind you, all this time I had no path even. My good man 
told me, moreover, that if I should not succeed in finding 
the way, there was a house not far off where I might 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 27 

obtain a guide, or, in case of dire necessity, remain for the 
night. I followed 'the fence/ forded 'the branch' and, 
tired as I was, climbed 'the hill.' When I had pursued 
this way as long as directed, and no road appeared, I was 
sure I was wrong, and was most assuredly quite non- 
plussed. I determined to make for the house as suggested. 
Now an old bachelor lived in this domus — he almost as 
lonely as myself. In spite of a ferocious dog (which 
'they' afterwards said they wondered didn't bite me) I 
made my way to the log cabin — excuse my calling it house 
before. Here I paused at the door, which was stretched 
most invitingly open. I looked in; all were abed, asleep, 
and in the darkness. 'Halloa! ho! say, mister, wake up, 
here you! I'm lost,' so I cried out. The worthy lord 
grunted in reply: 'Come in, stop till day.' Half asleep 
yet, he ! 'Thank ye, sir, can you send one of your darkies 
to escort me to Mrs. Massie's ? I'm only a mile off and 
anxious to reach there to-night.' Emit grunt No. 2 : 
'Don't know — s'pose so.' Here I passed my fingers over 
the face of mv watch (it was too dark to see mv watch, 
being very cloudy), and was surprised to find it ten 
o'clock. This decided me to stay, so I said: 'I rather 
guess I will stay — anywhere, chair, chest, or on the floor.' 
Grunt No. 3 : 'There's another bed, if you can find it.' 
'Mister, I'm so dry. Where's the spring ? Or the pail V 
'There — here — no, behind you.' Bless me, if you could 
have seen me, groping there like a coal-black blind negro 
in midnight in a dark cellar, you would have (just what 
I did in spite of my awkward fix and painful fatigue) 
laughed. The water attained, I quickly seated myself 



28 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

in the door to cool — for I was drenched (like a drowned 
rat) with perspiration and panting like a wounded deer. 
Mine host with equal nonchalance recomposed himself to 
sleep. Finally I undressed, placing my watch and other 
valuables in my hat — and that on the table near the wide- 
open door. Never did a bed feel so acceptable to tired 
limbs, though I went to it candleless and supperless. I 
was too aching to sleep though, so I amused myself by 
making 'astronomical observations/ not through the roof, 
for there ivas a loft, but through the door, and obliquely 
through the cracks in the sides, which were plenty and 
plenty large. To close in a word, however, a long and 
what I fear you have thought a tedious story, bright and 
early next day I rose, and, without seeing anybody but 
a darky, pursued my way to Spring Valley, arriving 
just in time for breakfast. . . . Ever since my ad- 
venture (which you must admit to have been sui generis) 
I have felt like a foundered stage horse — stiff, etc. I 
hope to recover before I try such a tramp again — must 
have walked at least eighteen or twenty miles. I close, 
warning all who may read this against 'short cuts' across 
the mountains." 



CHAPTER II 

Baltimore Pastorate — Marriage 

'Tis not a cause of small import 

The pastor's care demands, 
The work might fill an angel's heart — 

It filled the Saviour's hands. 

— Doddridge. 

Neveb had man more joyfull day than this 

Whom heaven would heape with bliss, 
Make feast, therefore, now all this live-long day, 
This day forever to me holy is. 

— Spenser. 
* 

A physical breakdown cut short Mr. Taylor's course 
at the University. He had undertaken more work than 
would have been wise for a strong man, and he was by 
no means strong. No doubt his physical condition ac- 
counts in a large measure for many seasons of mental 
depression, approaching morbidness. It was probably at 
such a time that he wrote for the True Union the follow- 
ing: 

"My House ! I have no house now ; I do not know that 
I ever shall have ; i. e., of the sort which men love so to 
build and live in; though, I confess, I often, in my 
thoughts, rear such a one. But there is a house appointed 
for me, though I do not know in what part of the world 
it is, or when I shall become its occupant. It is scarcely 
so high as my head, but that matters not, since I shall 



30 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

never want to stand up in it. It is dark, for there are 
no windows to admit the sun, and candles and fires arc 
never lighted. It has but one room, and that not long nor 
wide. It has no door, for when once I go in I shall not 
come out again. I shall occupy it alone. Alas ! no, 
solitude were a boon indeed. A thousand worms shall be 
my fellow-lodgers. A silent house ! The howling storm, 
the pattering rain, the din of business — none of these shall 
reach my ear. A peaceful house ! Then this head which 
has ached so often shall ache no more. Most probably 
my house is not alone, but is one of many tenements in 
some great silent city. Reader, a house like this awaits 
thee also." 

When his friend, Rev. Z. Jeter George,* read these 
lines, he wrote to the author of them, reminding him of 
another house which was his, whose maker and builder 
was God; not a dark house, but made bright by the Sun 
of Righteousness. 

Not long after he left the University, there came a call 
to the pastorate of the Franklin Square Baptist Church, 
of Baltimore. This church had been organized in October 
of the preceding year and five months later had occupied, 
for the first time, the lecture room of the meeting-house in 
process of erection. Upon this occasion the sermon had 
been preached by the Rev. Dr. J. W. M. Williams, pastor 
of the First Baptist Church. Mr. Taylor accepted the 



*Rev. Z. Jeter George, after his university life (during which time 
he was pastor of the Mountain Plain Church ) , became pastor of the 
Manchester Church. His career of great promise was ended by an 
early death. His funeral was preached by Rev. Dr. J. L. Burrows. 



EEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 31 

call and began his work towards the fall of 1855, he being 
the first pastor of the church and the church being his 
first regular pastorate. At that time the Baptists were 
not strong in Baltimore. Yet several of the pastors were 
very able men, one of them being the matchless pulpit 
orator, Richard Fuller. They did not have in those days 
many meeting-houses, but the one in which the First 
Church worshipped, known as the "Old Round Top," 
was a noble edifice and served as one of the landmarks 
of the city. 

Upon going to Baltimore, Mr. Taylor became a member 
of the family of the Rev. Dr. Franklin Wilson, whose 
wife was Mr. Taylor's first cousin. Mr. Wilson was a 
man of means, and had recently moved into "Oakley," 
an unusually handsome home which he had built on the 
outskirts of the city. A weak throat soon after his gradu- 
ation disqualified him for the active work of a pastor, but 
his piety, culture and ability made him to the end of his 
life (which, notwithstanding the early prophecy of the 
doctors, was a long one) a most potent factor in the 
religious well-being of his native city and of his own 
denomination. From his earliest childhood he had been 
fond of books and study, so of course his library was 
large and well selected, and the very atmosphere of his 
home at once literary and religious. This, as can easily 
be seen, was a most congenial home for the young pastor. 

Mr. Wilson bought, and with Mr. Taylor edited for 
several years, The Christian Review. This periodical was 
established in 1836, and had had among its editors such 
distinguished men as Dr. Bamas Sears and Dr. S. F. 



32 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Smith. The high intellectual plane of such a publication 
and its religious character well accorded with the ability 
and aptitudes of Mr. Taylor's mind. He was nothing 
if not philosophical and metaphysical, and withal fond of 
composition as well as of public speech. Just at this 
period of his life, too, the output of his mind found 
natural expression not only in the pulpit but perhaps 
even more appropriately in the pages of such a review. 
As he had not attended any theological seminary, Balti- 
more became his self-made theological seminary. During 
this period he thought through, as far as any man can 
be said to do so, the great problems offered by theology 
and philosophy. He mastered the Epistle to the Romans, 
if any one can be said to accomplish this task, and while 
he had many seasons of mental agony and distress, never- 
theless he came out into a peace and trust which were to 
go with him through life, growing stronger and stronger 
to the end. 

There was the lighter, the brighter side to his life. 
The very fact that he was by no means strong physically — 
a fact he could not be ignorant of, since headaches and 
languor, if not more serious spells, were often his lot — 
made much open-air exercise absolutely necessary. So we 
find him taking frequent walks. In his longer rambles he 
had very often, as his companion, Rev. John Berg, an Eng- 
lishman, who was thoughtful and pleasant in conversation. 
When the walk was not too extended for the short legs 
of a small boy, his cousin, Appleton, counted it a high 
privilege to go along, and the young preacher was so 
gentle and kind that his habit of sermonizing as he walked 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 33 

did not annoy the child. Xor was it alone upon these 
walks that Applet on enjoyed the companionship of his 
cousin, so far his senior. The boy loved to go to "Cousin 
George's Room/" and here he passed many a happy hour. 
Mr. Taylor was willing to take time and pains to amuse 
and instruct the child, now telling him stories and now 
suggesting ways in which Appleton could amuse himself. 

The life of the household was in many ways most 
delightful. At the table, and in the evening, the im- 
portant events and books of the day were apt to pass 
under discussion, and the progress of the city along 
material as well as religious lines was always of great 
interest to the people at "Oakley." Frequent drives to 
various places in the suburbs of Baltimore were taken, and 
now and then longer trips were the order of the day. 
Gustave Burger, an ingenious and kindly German, who 
was the gardener and general utility man, became a 
valuable and valued member of the household. With 
his cooperation many schemes were carried through 
which delighted Appleton, and were not without interest 
for the older people. For example, a balloon was con- 
structed, sent upon a voyage, recovered, and started out 
upon a second flight ; then one year there was a Christmas 
tree, which, even in Baltimore, preeminently a city of 
Christmas trees, must have been unique and worth more 
than passing notice. Mr. Taylor, with his Virginia 
bringing up, was so partial to open fireplaces and wood 
fires, and so expatiated on such a method of heating, that 
he not only was allowed to introduce the open fire in his 
own room, but also succeeded in persuading Mr. Wilson to 



34 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

have in the library, in addition to the furnace, a wood 
fire, brass andirons and all. Even Baltimore, at that day, 
or at least the outskirts of Baltimore, did not have some 
of the comforts of our present city homes, however humble ; 
Mr. Wilson provided water for the household by a cistern, 
but this supply being inadequate for bathing, the house 
had no bath-room. It so happened that Mr. Taylor's first 
winter in Baltimore the weather was very severe, and, as 
all the streets around "Oakley" had not been paved, it 
was often through mud and mire that the faithful trio 
made their way with a commendable zeal to the various 
meetings of the young church. 

The work of the church went on well. It is probably 
often, if not always, true that a preacher does not do his 
best work in his first pastorate, or in the first years of his 
first pastorate. It seems certain that Mr. Taylor im- 
proved as a preacher after leaving Baltimore, but perhaps 
this gain was in the way of a more popular style, rather 
than in the subject matter of his sermons. He may have 
been inclined to preach over the heads of his people, 
and as he was studying the book of Romans and thus 
the deep things of the gospel, it is probable that his ser- 
mons took tinge and tone from his studies, nay, from his 
mental anguish and agony. It has been seen already that 
he had a fondness for children and the gift of attracting 
and helping them. This talent was to receive large 
development and to be used with great blessing in later 
years. In Baltimore he began preaching to children. 
The House of Refuge, of which institution Mr. Wilson 
was a trustee, with its many young people, even more 



BEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 35 

than his church, gave scope for Mr. Taylors ability to 
reach the heads and hearts of the young. 

During his Baltimore life Mr. Taylor was invited to 
make the first alumni oration ever delivered at Richmond 
College. The subject of his address on this occasion is 
characteristic of the man, and preeminently so of this 
period of his life. One who was a student at Richmond 
College at that time, who heard the oration, and who 
since then has risen to distinguished place, both as a public 
speaker and a preacher, thus describes the occasion: 

u On entering the place for the performance I saw on 
the platform a small figure of a man with soft, mildly 
reddish hair, a fixed stoop in his shoulders, with a face 
which bespoke the student, and an eye which was deep 
in its blue and seemed made for emitting kindness. He 
did not please me as he came forward to speak and his 
voice was not quite satisfactory, but he was young and did 
not assume nor shiver. He was manifestly there to say 
something. His theme was 'The Thinker,' and from his 
first word he seized me; I had heard no man so young 
who seemed to know things so well and could frame them 
so wisely. With it all was an evident dissatisfaction with 
himself, unexpressed and yet most evident. 
I did not meet the alumni orator on the occasion of his 
address, but I saw men and women shaking hands with 
him in a pleased way and knew that he hit the nail on 
the head." 

In May, 1857, Mr. Taylor attended the Southern 
Baptist Convention in Louisville and was elected one of 
the recording secretaries of that body, a position to which 



36 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

he was reelected at four succeeding sessions. On this 
trip he was much with his friend of college and univer- 
sity days, Rev. Z. Jeter George, and discovered in him 
the ability to introduce with tact the subject of religion. 
Mr. Taylor says : 

"During our association together in Louisville I was 
much impressed by his disposition to speak with uncon- 
verted persons on personal religion, and by his happy 
manner of securing their good will, and then introducing 
the subject. We were with a number of lively young 
ladies, and I remember that my first thought was that 
Jeter had entered too much into their conversation; but 
I subsequently was led to believe that he was really 
aiming, and not without prospect of success, to do them 
good. A few weeks before his death, he told me of a 
letter received from one of these young ladies, in which, 
to some of his earnest inquiries, she replied that she 
could not be indifferent to her own soul, when he, a 
stranger, had manifested such anxiety for its salvation." 

During the latter part of his Baltimore pastorate, Mr. 
Taylor filled one Sunday the pulpit of the Baptist 
Church in Fredericksburg. This visit was a most event- 
ful one for him, since here he met for the first time 
her who was ere long to become his wife and to be for 
the rest of his life a noble inspiration. Upon a return 
to Fredericksburg for the express purpose of seeing the 
lovely one who had charmed him, alas, he 

"... rings the gateway bell 
And learns her gone and far from home; 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 37 

"He saddens, all the magic light 
Dies off at once from bower and hall, 
And all the place is dark, and all 
The chambers emptied of delight." 

He was not, however, easily foiled in his purpose, so 
hearing that the family was at a certain watering place 
in the Virginia mountains, he sets out thither. He is 
just too late ! The family has gone on to yet another of 
the many Virginia Springs. Possibly again he was too 
late, but finally his perseverance was rewarded. Nor was 
his suit for the fair one's hand less successful. In due 
time the engagement was announced and on the morn- 
ing of May 13th, 1858, the marriage took place at "Hazel 
Hill," the home, on the edge of Fredericksburg, of Mr. 
J. Warren Slaughter, his wife being a sister of the bride. 
It would be hard to find anywhere a more beautiful home 
than "Hazel Hill." It is approached from the town, 
after the stately gateway is passed, through a long avenue 
of noble trees. In front of the house the grounds fell 
away in terraces to "Hazel Run," and in the rear a typical 
old-fashioned Virginia garden, with vegetable beds all 
having borders of box or flowers, sloped gradually towards 
the broad waters of the placid Rappahannock. The house 
itself, with its large hall, spacious rooms, broad veranda, 
ample greenhouse, covered ways to the kitchen, quaint 
attic and lofty belvedere was indeed the home of 

"Free-Hearted Hospitality; 
His great fires up the chimney roared, 
The stranger feasted at his board." 

It was here on a lovely morning in May that Susan 
Spottiswoode Braxton became Mr. Taylor's bride. She 



38 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

was a daughter of Carter Braxton, her mother's maiden 
name having been Elizabeth Teackle Mayo. She was a 
great-granddaughter of Carter Braxton, one of the signers 
of the Declaration of Independence, and was one of four 
sisters famous at once for their beauty and their charm- 
ing personality. It is said that Oncken, the famous Ger- 
man Baptist, declared that Sallie Braxton was the most 
beautiful woman he saw while in America. A distin- 
guished gentleman, for many years an honored citizen of 
Richmond, was wont to tell how, when a boy, he used to 
watch with bated breath as Sallie and Susan Braxton 
passed up the aisle at old Bruington Church in King 
and Queen — a vision of beauty he had never seen equalled 
in all the years thereafter. One who came to know best 
of all the bride of that May morning, some years ago 
wrote these words, telling in part the story of her earlier 
days : 

"Mrs. Taylor was the second daughter of the late Carter 
and Elizabeth Mayo Braxton, and was born at 'Hungers, 7 
the family residence, Northampton County, Virginia. 
Most of her childhood and early youth was spent in the 
country, where she enjoyed few formal educational ad- 
vantages, but under the guidance of a singularly wise and 
cultured mother, read extensively the best works of fiction, 
poetry and history which formed her taste and were for 
a permanent possession; while, by associating with the 
refined and intelligent, she acquired that general informa- 
tion and those graces which schools rarely give. When 
she was about sixteen her father and mother died in quick 
succession, leaving her, with five sisters and a brother, in 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 39 

the care of a maiden aunt in Fredericksburg. Upon 
Susan and her eldest sister, the late Mrs. Slaughter, rested 
much of the responsibility of training the younger 
children. From her earliest childhood she had learned to 
love the Saviour, and now with her sister she was baptized 
in the Rappahannock by Rev. Samuel Smith, pastor in 
Fredericksburg. Thus they followed the example of their 
mother, who, reared an Episcopalian, became from con- 
viction a Baptist and was immersed in Norfolk by Dr. 
Howell. Even those who do not hold Baptist views can 
admire the heroism of a girl, who, obedient to what she 
felt the voice of duty, identified herself with the little 
Baptist Church, poor, and worshipping in a mean building 
on the river-side, and in a measure cut herself off from 
those who were her natural associates. From the be- 
ginning she was an active worker in the church and full 
of the missionary spirit, while she was generally loved 
and admired in the town for her piety as well as for her 
charms of person and manner." 

On the wedding trip Baltimore and Richmond were 
visited. Young people nowadays might think that going 
to a prayer-meeting would be untimely on the wedding 
journey; not so with this preacher and his bride. One 
who was at that time a Richmond College student writes 
thus of this occasion: 

"Just before my graduation I was one night at the 
Grace Street Church prayer-meeting and found this 
young minister present with his bride, they being on a 
visit to his parents. How modestly proud he was as he 
presented that fair treasure of his soul to his old church 



40 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

friends, and was met with joyous congratulations on every 
side \" 

The wedding journey went well, the worse mishap 
that befell the young couple being the burning up of 
the wedding bonnet, which caught fire from the lamp on 
the hall steps. All were so thankful that the bride's 
fair face escaped unhurt ! 

Some months before his marriage, Mr. Taylor had 
resigned his church in Baltimore to accept a call to be- 
come pastor of the Baptist Church in Staunton, the chief 
town of the beautiful and famous "Valley of Virginia." 
It was thither, therefore, that Mr. Taylor now took his 
young bride. The story of the years spent in Staunton 
must be left for another chapter. 




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CHAPTER III 

Fir^l Pastorate in Staunton — The Civil War 

He taughte, but first he followed it himselve. 

— Chcwcer. 

Uxdeb the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day; 
Love and tears for the Blue, 

Tears and love for the Gray. 

— Francis Miles Finch. 



Had Mr. Taylor's first pastorate been a prophecy? 
Was he always to fill difficult positions ? The soil of 
Baltimore from the first has been peculiarly barren for 
Baptists. Staunton in these early days was a difficult 
field for the Baptists, though now one hears no longer the 
old saying that Baptists and sweet potatoes will not grow 
west of the Blue Ridge. How hard was the field to 
which he gave the best years of his life ! ''Beautiful for 
situation," the long line of the Blue Ridge to the east and 
the billowy Alleghanies to the west, Staunton lies in the 
heart of Augusta, one of the largest and one of the most 
fertile counties in the Old Dominion. It is a mountain 
town, though not "cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd" by the 
mountains; they are far enough away to gain the "azure 
hue," of which the poet Campbell speaks. The surround- 
ing country is famous for its splendid wheat, fine cattle 



42 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and fruit. In the town are located two admirably 
managed state institutions, each with extensive and at- 
tractive grounds, one for the deaf, dumb and blind, and 
the other for the insane; and one or more schools for the 1 
higher education of young women, drawing students 
from many Southern States, have for years nourished here. 
The story of the origin of the Baptist Church in 
Staunton and of the beginning of Mr. Taylor's work there 
is best told by his pen. At the 50th anniversary of the 
Staunton Church, celebrated at the meeting of the General 
Association, November 15th, 1903, Dr. Taylor in his 
historical sermon said: 

" . . . In the wise and beautiful economy of 
nature, seeds, even the tiniest and frailest, are not only 
wonderfully preserved, but widely distributed, travelling 
free on trains and wains, and as unconsciously scattered 
by all animals, and especially by the birds of the air, as 
by the winds themselves. So it is with the realm of 
thought and spirit, — opinions, doctrines, having wonder- 
ful vitality and many ways for their dissemination; and 
as with natural seed, so it is with that of the spirit, there 
being the precious, the imperfect, the useless, and the 
hurtful, tares and wheat competing with each other till 
the day of separation. We are apt to think of the evangel- 
ist or the press as almost the only agents in bearing to 
new places the Word of God or any peculiar form of 
doctrine, practice, or worship, losing sight of the fact 
that a large part of this work has been done by the immi- 
gration of individuals and peoples carrying with them to 
their new homes the religions which were a part of their 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, L>. D. 4:3 

lives. To limit ourselves only to Virginia, we see how the 
English brought to Eastern Virginia their Episcopacy, 
which for a time was established even as in the old 
country; the Scotch-Irish to this beautiful valley Presby- 
terianism, and the German Baptists the doctrine of be- 
lievers' baptism. Let me ask, in passing, if our de- 
nomination ought not to seek closer relations with those 
our brethren, so near to us in doctrine and practice and so 
honorable in the affairs of life ? In the Roanoke Times 
the excess of taxes paid in was explained by the specially 
honest returns made by the Dunkards, or German Baptists, 
of the county, to whom that enterprising newspaper paid 
a merited tribute as upright, excellent citizens. 

"In like manner individuals removing to new regions 
have borne with them their religious principles and pro- 
claimed them where they were not known. Thus came 
into existence the church in Rome to which Paul wrote 
his great epistle, a church composed of those who heard 
Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, or of those who 
received the gospel in other times and places, and who for 
their earthly interests had removed to Rome, then the 
world's chief centre. Thus was born our sister, the first 
Baptist Church of Charlottesville, chiefly through the in- 
fluence, the prayers, the labors of one or two heroic women. 
Such also is the case of this Baptist Church in Staunton, 
owing its origin primarily not to any minister, but to the 
Providence of God, which led several Baptists, chiefly 
from Albemarle County, to cross the Blue Ridge and 
settle here — men and women who, instead of abandoning 
their religious principles, as so many do in similar cir- 



44 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

cumstances, held them firmly, so that neglected New 
Testament doctrines and practices were planted, and to-day 
nourish not alone in Staunton, but elsewhere in this 
Valley. 

"Let this be a lesson to you, my brother, my sister, if 
business or marriage or health should lead you to some 
other place. Stand to your colors, hold fast, profess and 
proclaim those truths which you have learned from the 
Word of God, so shall you be blessed and a blessing. 
Yea, and what a lesson is here for teaching our children 
and indoctrinating our members, so that they may be 
fully persuaded as to the system of doctrine and duty 
and ecclesiastical inarch which we, as Christians and 
Baptists, hold from the Holy Scriptures, and that they 
may be ready to give an answer to every one that asketh 
them as to the faith that is in them. 

a But there was another cooperating cause in the forma- 
tion of this church. In the latter part of the first half of 
the nineteenth century the Goshen Association, one of the 
oldest in Virginia, composed of some two-score of churches 
in the counties of Spottsylvania, Caroline, Orange, and 
Louisa, began to carry on independent evangelizing work, 
and, under the leadership of Littlebury W. Allen and 
James D. Coleman, raised large sums and sent missionaries 
to various strategic points. One of these was Staunton. 

"When we think of the great work done by the State 
Mission Board, it seems strange that places so important 
as Harrisonburg, Winchester, and Staunton should have 
been so long neglected. A partial explanation is found 
in the fact that what is now West Virginia absorbed most 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 45 

of the means contributed for State missions. Our older 
ministers, too, rather shrank from towns and cities, pre- 
ferring to labor in the country. It is pleasant to me 
that my own father, at a very early date, not only plead 
for evangelizing this part of the Valley, but when chap- 
lain of the University of Virginia, in the session of 
1839-'40, came over in the stage and preached at least 
once in this city. But now the set time for planting a 
Baptist Church here had fully come, and the chosen 
instrument was the Bev. S. B. Bice, M. D., who had been 
pastor of Mount Moriah Church, in Amherst County, 
and of Adiel, in kelson. 

"During the meeting of the Baptist General Associa- 
tion in Bichmond, in the year 1886, I had a pleasant 
conversation with the Bev. A. B. Brown, who said that 
he was about to prepare a sketch of the life and character 
of the late Dr. Bice. It seems that the two men had 
once been intimate, Brown, who was the younger, pre- 
ferring, although an Episcopalian at the time, to attend 
the ministry of Bice. It was also in part through the 
elder man that Brown, with his eminent worth and gifts, 
became a Baptist. The biographical notice in question 
was never written, as in a few days after our conversation 
■he who was so wonderfully endowed for the understanding 
and delineating of character, and who had in this case 
the requisite knowledge and personal affection, became 
himself the unconscious subject of the loving and mourn- 
ful eulogies of his brethren. It is an irreparable loss, 
but we know that Dr. Bice was a man of imposing presence, 
and that he had the gifts and experience necessary for 



46 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the pioneer work which he came to accomplish. Through 
him the resident Baptists were, in October, 1853, gathered 
together, forming this church. Thirteen members united 
in the organization. Thenceforward the bulk of his time 
and strength was given to raising funds for the erection 
of the church house, whicji was seen to be a prime neces- 
sity. Brains and hearts certainly mean more than bricks, 
but as Thomas Jefferson, who was calling from the old 
country able professors, saw the need of buildings before 
opening our State University, so a local habitation was 
felt to be essential to the mission of this church. After 
the brethren and sisters here had done what they could, 
Dr. Rice travelled all over Eastern Virginia, largely in a 
private conveyance, visiting not only the town and city 
churches, but those of the country as well, telling of the 
labors and sacrifices specially of one of the members 
here, — how her skillful and busy fingers wrought ever 
in the interest of the building that was to be. At the lay- 
ing of the corner-stone Dr. J. L. Burrows delivered an 
address ; Dr. B. M. Smith, of the Presbyterian Church, 
offered prayer, and Rev. L. W. Allen, in his own peculiar 
way, told the people not to despise the Baptists because 
few and almost unknown in the Valley, for over the 
mountains they owned a large share of the land and the 
negroes, too. The building rose slowly, some prophesying 
that it would never see completion. To me in the year 
1855, passing through the town, the work seemed sus- 
pended, but later it was reported to the Albemarle Asso- 
ciation that the lecture room was ready for use, and in 
it I believe a Sunday school was gathered. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 47 

"In the summer of 1857, Dr. S. B. Kice having con- 
cluded his labors, and at the close of my own pastorate 
of two years in Baltimore, I was invited to become pastor 
of this church. Asking the advice of Dr. Jeter, I said : 
'There are, I believe, no leading members.' 'That does 
not matter,' replied my counsellor, 'if they are following 
members ; you do the leading,' and most beautifully did 
the brethren here from the first help and cooperate with 
their young pastor, there being then, and for nearly the 
whole of my pastorate, no kinsman of Diotrophes. 

"My pastorate of the Franklin Square Baptist Church, 
Baltimore, had not been without blessing to others, at 
least a few of the numerous converts being my very own 
spiritual children. To me it was a period of great distress, 
but of great usefulness, for the theological problems 
which, as Sir William Hamilton says, emerge first in 
philosophy, had begun to trouble me while still a univer- 
sity student, and they went with me to Baltimore ; but 
by the great mercy of God I was led during that period 
of storm and stress and fiery temptation to a sufficiently 
satisfactory solution of those problems, though leaving, 
indeed, as one ever must, a certain insoluble residuum 
for faith, certainly in this world, perhaps also in the world 
to come, for a finite creature can never comprehend, 
though he may apprehend, the Infinite One. 

"I came, therefore, to Staunton with new courage and 
new hope, my preaching, too, becoming less apologetic 
and more boldly that of a herald, who, believing, therefore 
spake. 

"Never had a youthful minister kinder or more appre- 



48 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ciative members than those I found here. Few they were, 
indeed, a mere handful, but good as gold. To speak only 
of the departed, there was Simpson F. Taylor, a hard- 
working, simple-hearted man, who had accumulated a 
modest estate by managing farms in Albemarle County. 
He loved the gospel, this church, and its minister with 
an affection that held nothing back, and made me feel 
from the first that he would share equally with me all 
that he had, according to my need. He made little figure 
in the community, a humble, unobtrusive man, but he was 
a devoted Christian and a pillar in the church. What he 
and his wife were is best told by the fine character and 
excellent work of their son, John H. Taylor, who, an 
exception to the proverb, has been for two-score years 'a 
prophet in his own country/ serving, among others, the 
Laurel Hill Church, in which he was converted. William 
H. Peyton, in his business relations, had been thrown 
much among worldly men, and not without injury to his 
piety, but he had the root of the matter in him, and he 
was a generous spirit, susceptible through affection of 
great development both as to gifts and graces. For a 
long time he found it impossible to shape his lips to say 
the word 'brother, 7 but that was acquired, and he learned 
to pray and exhort most acceptably in the prayer-meeting 
and became a capital Sunday-school superintendent. 
Under loving pressure of the truth, he came to feel the 
inconsistency of owning the bar of the Virginia Hotel, 
and after first restricting it, he finally, as the only way 
recognized as possible, parted with the hotel itself, in 
which how many ministers and others had been enter- 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAX TAYLOR, D. D. 49 

tained gratis ! He was ever a friend to every good minis- 
ter and his pastor's right hand. The last time I saw 
Brother Peyton I recognized that he had outrun me in 
the heavenly race, and was able to strengthen my own 
faith by his simple trust under pressure of illness and 
face to face with the last enemy. The aged Brother And- 
erson, a slave of Simpson F. Taylor, had for years made 
it his prayer that a Baptist Church might be planted in 
Staunton, and, like Simeon, lived to see the answer to his 
prayer. Two other colored persons, free born, Mrs. Laura 
Campbell and her venerable mother, members of this 
church, esteemed in the whole community, were the ex- 
cellent of the earth, helpers of my joy, earnest listeners 
to the preached word, ready to every good work. One 
other name must be added, that of Alexander Pope Abell, 
who had indeed returned to Charlottesville before I came 
to Staunton, but whose work I found in a good Sunday 
school. 

"The summer of 1857 is notable and dear to me as the 
season in which I was called to the sole remaining pastorate 
of my life, and in which God gave me her who was destined 
for more than a quarter of a century to be the greatest 
possible blessing of my life, a blessing to this church, and 
to our church in Rome. About the first of November 
in that year the brethren informed me that the building 
was finished, and begged me to come at once, and almost 
exactly forty-six years ago, simultaneously with the com- 
ing of the Episcopal minister, Mr. Latane, and the Pres- 
byterian pastor, Mr. Baker, I preached the first sermon 
in the then new church. From that day an era of pros- 



50 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

perity began. The Sunday school increased in numbers 
and efficiency. Congregations were large and attentive, 
and several stray Baptists were hunted up and gathered 
in. Several persons who had been immersed by an 
itinerant Campbellite minister were accepted as members, 
the church, at my suggestion, having decided to accept 
without rebaptism such as had been immersed on a pro- 
fession of personal faith in Christ without having im- 
bibed any of the peculiar views originating with Alexander 
Campbell. This is mentioned simply as a fact in the 
history of the church. There being still a debt on the 
building, though not at all pressing, I made short collect- 
ing trips, chiefly between Sundays, and secured a con- 
siderable sum. 

"Before the popular interest due to novelty had seriously 
waned, the cause received a new impulse through a pro- 
tracted meeting begun with the preaching of Dr. John 
A. Broadus and followed up with that of Dr. Cornelius 
Tyree. It was a time of great blessing, and many who 
proved themselves valuable members were added as one 
of its precious fruits. Mr. and Mrs. Summerson, Mr. 
J. B. Hoge, and the Misses Pemberton were among the 
converts of that revival season. 

"From having enjoyed a certain popularity the Baptist 
pastor now became, with some, very unpopular. Let me 
explain. After I had resigned the care of this church 
in 1873, Mr. Latane, who had also resigned the care of 
the Episcopal Church, said to me : ( A meeting of ministers 
was called early in your pastorate to make you leave 
Staunton, although I explained to them that it would be 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 51 

impossible, but you, Dr. Taylor, hearing of the call and 
knowing nothing of the object, came to the meeting, which 
put an end to the project.' It is certain that in this 
instance ignorance was to me better even than bliss, for 
it served me as no wisdom could have done, and from that 
time fairly good and in some cases intimate relations 
with the ministers were established, and after a while the 
Protestant ministers of the town met every Monday night 
at each other's houses to sup, to pray and plan for the 
religious interests of the community. There was also for 
a time a partial exchange of pulpits. Thus the Baptist 
Church became an element of peace in Staunton. Before 
its coming there had long been a notorious lack of good 
feeling between Presbyterians and Episcopalians. This 
was changed for the better in the presence of a common 
adversary, and later the era of good feeling embraced all 
the churches of the city, and has lasted until to-day. 

"I was not yet twenty-five years old when I came to 
Staunton, full of the audacity of youth. It was perhaps 
that audacity alone which led me, carrying out a sug- 
gestion of my great master, Dr. Gessner Harrison, to 
attempt the catechising of the church. In fact, despite 
the protests of various sisters, I did carry the church 
through Dr. Boyce's catechism for adults. Perhaps it 
would have been wiser to give, instead, a course of lectures 
on Christian doctrine. 

"The young pastor had his petty embarrassments, some 
of which are now viewed with amusement. There was an 
old woman who had the habit of mounting into the pulpit 
to ask him the most trivial questions. Once, however, he 



52 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

had the better of her. On one of his visits to her house 
she said : 'I have had a revelation, and wish you to tell me 
whether it is from God or Satan.' 'State your revelation.' 
'It is revealed to me that I must preach.' 'What do you 
mean ? Stand up in the pulpit as I do and address the 
congregation V i Just that.' Laying my hand upon her 
arm I said : 'Satan, my sister.' 'Do you think so V 'I am 
sure of it.' 'Well, then, I give it up.' Well were it if 
many of the false spirits of to-day were as easily laid!" 

Elsewhere Dr. Taylor wrote as follows concerning the 
first Sunday of his Staunton pastorate : 

"I preached in the morning the dedication sermon 
from the text, 'Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy 
house and the place where Thine honour dwelleth,' and at 
night, my introductory, as pastor, from the words : 'As 
much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you 
that are at Rome also,' little dreaming, by the way, that 
this was afterwards to be literally fulfilled in my history." 

A letter to his brother pictures his life soon after going 
to Staunton, one of his sisters being at the time a visitor 
in his home : 

"Our life is so quiet, so utterly devoid of incident and 
the town is so dull, that really I often feel that there is next 
to nothing to write about. Our days pass somewhat in 
this fashion: We all manage to get up a little before 
breakfast, which is not early, varying from 7 to 7.30 
o'clock. That over, we adjourn to the parlour and have 
family worship, in which I am reading the Psalms (in 
course — this morning's was the cvn), and a part of 
which is singing. Mary is a great help in this exercise, 



REV. GEORGE BOAUDMAN TAYLOR, I). 1). 53 

though I have learned never to balk at raising a tunc 
After worship I generally go into the garden for vege- 
tables. This is one of the pleasures of the day. Occa- 
sionally I run over to market, just after breakfast, for 
butter, eggs, etc. When I want butcher's meat I have to 
go by 5 o'clock. Such matters attended to, I spend the 
balance of the morning in my study, which is generally 
not less than from four to five hours. I might accomplish 
much if I felt well and were able to study, but this re- 
cently has not been the case. Not more than every other 
day can I apply myself as I would like. I am hoping 
to circulate in the mountains during September and re- 
turn with renewed vigor of body, and elasticity of mind. 
The ladies sit in the parlour or in one of the chambers, 
sewing and chatting. I frequently read aloud to them. 
Have just finished reading in this way Foster's 'Essay 
on a Man's Writing a Memoir of Himself.' I have also 
read a good deal from Bryant, my favorite poet.* Have 
you a copy of his works \ If so, read his ' June' over about 
twenty times and you will then realize what a glorious 
thing it is. . . . At night we all sit together in 
the parlour, reading, chatting, and the like. Family 
worship closes, as it begins, the day. So much, my dear 
brother, for my outer life. My inner life it were hard 
to describe. It is made up of temptations, sins and tribu- 
lations common to man. I sometimes feel that I have 
little to live for here and but slight hope of a happy 
eternity, but, thank God, this is by no means a prevailing 



*This was not the verdict of his later years, when Tennyson, Words- 
worth and Browning were perhaps his favorite poets. 



54 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

state. From what we read in the Psalms and in the; 
biographies of great and good men I suppose such states 
are not peculiar to me. If I can only maintain my 
integrity. It is the fear of losing that which often is the 
most distressing thing of all." 

The next letter, begun at the White Sulphur Springs 
but finished at Staunton, shows how busy he was, though 
far from strong in body. At the first of these places his 
brother James was with him. W. H. Peyton, referred to 
in this letter, and his brother George L. Peyton had charge 
at various times of the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, 
the Rockbridge Alum Springs and the Virginia Hotel, 
Staunton, and were liberal and hospitable to a degree : 

"We walked, talked, rolled tenpins and drank sulphur 
water to our hearts' content. ... In the evening 
we drove to Lewisburg, where I preached to a large and 
attentive congregation. . . . The next morning we 
proceeded to the Blue Sulphur Springs, distant thirteen 
miles. This is the property of which I have spoken so 
often with reference to Baptist Male High School. It has 
just been sold, with furniture, etc., for $26,000. 
It is a lovely place, dirt cheap and perfectly adapted, and 
I could not but feel a sentiment of disappointment that 
it is now probably out of our power. . . . Saturday 
morning at 6 o'clock, leaving Mr. Slaughter's party, Sue 
and I set out for home — rode thirty miles in the stage and 
the rest by rail, reaching home at 7 p. m., both, as you 
may judge, sorely fatigued. . . . To-morrow morn- 
ing I expect to leave for Mechanicsville and preach a 
week, though it suits me very illy to do so. . . . I had 



KEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 55 

a large congregation this morning — many Episcopalians, 
their house being closed." 

The next letter, to his mother, is very cheerful and 
calm, although he had a pin down his throat which three 
doctors tried in vain to dislodge: 

"Drs. Waddell and Baldwin and Fuqua have all tried 
in vain to extract the pin, but cannot even see it. I, 
however, feel it distinctly enough. It is very disagree- 
able, and irritates my throat, but I suppose will not be 
dangerous. ... I got Mr. Mason's rockaway, and 
Sue and I spent the time till dinner visiting some of our 
country folks. Found one lady — the head of a family — 
rejoicing in her new-found Saviour. I hope soon to 
baptize her. We had a charming ride and returned with 
a fine supply of apples. . . . Sue and I are very 
happy with our friends, but, as should be the case with 
all married people, are very contented and happy when 
left alone. ... I baptized two colored men Sunday 
a. m., and owing to some mistake about the depth of the 
water got drenched, and having no change of raiment 
walked home wet, but didn't take cold. ... I wish 
you had some of our nice partridges. Mr. Peyton sends 
them over nearly every day. They are so fat, nearly as 
much on them as chickens. They are very abundant. Mr. 
Peyton and some friends killed sixty-six the other morn- 
ing. ... I expect to come down at the railroad 
meeting, when I can travel free. I am not troubled with 
a plethora of funds." 

In the early summer of 1859 Mr. Taylor and his wife 
had their first great sorrow. Bessie, the little baby, who 



56 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

for several all too short months had brightened the home, 
passed from them, Mr. Taylor, at the time of her death, 
being absent in Charlottesville, where he made a public 
address. A letter to his sisters tells about Bessie's death : 

"I embrace the earliest opportunity to give you some 
particulars of that event which is of such mournful in- 
terest to us all. Susan will probably not write to-day. 
. We have both been sweetly sustained by our 
Heavenly Father. 

"Early last week our little darling was a little unwell. 
. Wednesday we decided to call the doctor. 
Dr. Waddell came and said, and evidently thought, the 
little babe was but slightly indisposed. . . . The next 
morning I left for Charlottesville. I said to Sue, 'I never 
hated so to leave home. I have a great mind not to go. 
I certainly would not but for feeling bound to fill my 
appointment. I will come directly back unless detained, 
and then I will not go away again, and we three will be 
so happy together.' . . . About 11 o'clock Friday, 
she seemed fretful, and, after a little, Sue concluded to 
send for the doctor. . . . He said little baby was 
not much sick. ... At 6 o'clock the baby was evi- 
dently much worse. Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Peyton and 
Drs. Waddell and Baldwin were sent for, and in a short 
time all came. It was then apparent that the end was 
near, and twenty minutes before eight the darling baby 
sweetly fell asleep in her mother's lap. 

"I made my speech in Charlottesville to a large and 
attentive crowd. But my heart was at home, and I could 
not forbear alluding in my remarks to my wife and child. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 57 

I spent the night at Brother John A. Broadus's. The 
next morning at worship I said in uiy prayer: 'And now, 

Lord, Thou knowest what are the scenes through which 
we may be called to pass this day. O may we be in all 
things resigned to Thv holv will !' While we were on 
onr knees the servant left the room to answer the door- 
bell, and as we rose he handed me the dispatch announc- 
ing Bessie was Very sick.' At the table, to win one of 
Mr. Broadus's little daughters, who was very shy, I had 
told her a good deal about my little Bessie, which seemed 
to interest all three of the children. Xow, Mr. Broadus 
said : 'Children, Mr. Taylor has been telling you about 
his little daughter, and now the telegraph has told him 
she is very sick.' Little Annie went with me into the 
study. I told her to go and pray for Bessie, which she 
promised to do. 

a In half an hour after, as I walked up to the Univer- 
sity, the telegraph agent called me and put into my hand 
a dispatch for my brother : 'Little Bessie Taylor has just 
died very suddenly, etc' I pursued my walk as one 
stunned. I had not thought that possible, and mercifully 

1 could not realize it. 

"The baby had changed a little, but not much. She 
wore a sweet smile, and it was pleasant to stand and gaze 
upon her darling face, and upon her hands so meekly 
folded on her breast. To do that and to kiss her again 
and again — to pray — to talk with Susan — to read Baxter's 
'Converse with God,' and the Bible, these were my prin- 
cipal employments that afternoon and night and yester- 



58 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

day morning. . . . How everything we see and do 
reminds us of her ! Here is her empty carriage. We will 
not put it away. We love to think of her even though our 
hearts bleed and our eyes constantly fill up with tears. 
I had gotten a temporary cradle and had ordered 
a beautiful one to be made. It was to have been brought 
home on Saturday afternoon. At that very time the man 
who was to have brought the cradle brought instead the 
coffin. . . . The funeral occurred at 4 p. m v at our 
church. . . . Brother Latane read Ps. xc and I Cor. 
xv 7 and gave out the hymn, 'As vernal flowers that scent 
the morn.' The house was crowded with a tearful, 
sympathetic audience." 

Later in a letter to his parents he writes about this 
great sorrow: 

"We have both been enabled to pass through our suffer- 
ing with a calmness and peace that I had not dreamed 
of. This, I would fain hope, is the Lord's doing. . . . 
One thing I know: whatever of peace I feel is from no 
lack of sensibility, for there is no hour when my thoughts 
are not of our darling and I cannot think of her but with 
a swelling heart." 

Later in the same summer he planned to take his wife 
with him on a trip out in the mountains of Western Vir- 
ginia. He wrote thus of the trip : 

"The doctor confirmed me in my plan to take her with 
me to the Western Association. The trip is mostly by 
stage and I have free tickets for her and myself on nearly 
all the stage routes, so that our expense will be much 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 59 

reduced. I invited Mary to accompany us, offering to 
pay her expenses at the Blue Sulphur." 

A letter later in the same summer tells, among other 
things, of the High School, which under Mr. Taylor's 
fostering care was to grow into a flourishing college: 

"We both, too, enjoy having the little boys. Of course 
their presence suggests sad thoughts. But since our little 
Bessie came and went, I love all little children better even 
than formerly. I feel, too, so tenderly to them. It used 
to annoy me when a baby cried in meeting, but now it 
only awakens feelings unutterably tender. 
You will have heard of the good prospects of the Alle- 
ghany High School. There were over forty students 
present the first day, and many more coming on. 
By the way, we had a pleasant little episode 
Tuesday night in the way of a collection, according 
to appointment, to pay for introducing gas, and altering 
the chandelier. After some devotional exercises I men- 
tioned the subject and laid down my 'V,' and then the 
money — notes, checks, gold and silver — kept coming up till 
we had $133.75 on the table, nearly the needed amount. 
This was done in three minutes, and then we went on with 
our praying and singing. The money we do raise here 
is raised as easily and as pleasantly as at any place I ever 
saw." 

An extract from a letter, written at Marion, Va., to 
his wife shows how active and zealous he was, not only in 
Staunton, but in the regions around, notwithstanding frail 
health : 

. . . I am now much better except my throat. 



60 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

I have not been able to preach. . . . Satur- 
day night was devoted to colportage. I made the only 
speech on that, talking forty minutes, and though I spoke 
with difficulty, the people listened very attentively. I 
raised in pledges over $130. . . . I have just been 
to the post office and taken out your kind, precious letter. 

I hope you will receive this promptly — it makes 
my fourth to you." 

In the first part of his life in Staunton, Mr. Taylor 
and his wife kept house, renting one place after another, 
and also boarded for a while at the Virginia Hotel. One 
letter tells of his planning to buy a lot and build: 

"I am thinking seriously of building a dwelling near 
the meeting-house — not that it is desirable on all ac- 
counts to build or even to buy, but it is hardly a matter 
of choice with me. We will soon have to leave this house 
and it seems impossible to rent. I have been looking for 
months without success." 

On October 31st, 1859, he writes to his brother: 

"I have bought a lot for $600 near our church. Shall 
build at once, ready for spring." 

This plan was carried out and a commodious brick 
house was erected and occupied for several years. The 
house was paid for in Confederate money and at the 
end of the war, Mr. Taylor, feeling that he was morally 
bound to pay for it again, in the severe stress of those 
trying days had to let the property go. In the letter just 
quoted he tells of a slight but painful accident: 

"I was walking to church yesterday a. m. in great 
haste, and fell, bruising my knee and tearing my pants, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 61 

and cutting my thumb against the curbstone so as to 
break the nail half down. I had but a minute to rush into 
Byron's store and pin up my pants, brush off the dust, 
soak my thumb in spirits of turpentine and bind it up with 
a piece of the nether end of one of Byron's old shirts. 
Managed to get through the, day, but at night my thumb 
was so inflamed and painful that I could not sleep, even 
with the assistance of laudanum. . . . But I was 
not prevented from marrying a couple this a. m., 
fee only a dollar. The whole party came here, only 
three in all. I talked so affect ingly that the groom cried. 
As the couple went out the old aunt lingered to say: 
'Young, foolish.' Think I, 'twere well if there were no 
couples old and foolish." 

Before the spring of 1860 the Alleghany High School 
had become Alleghany College, with very bright prospects 
of success. C. R. Mason, referred to in the following 
letter, was a successful contractor. He built a large part 
of the Virginia Central R. R. (now the C. & O.). He was 
with Stonewall Jackson, making himself most useful to 
the great commander by his wonderful engineering skill, 
and if he had had educational advantages probably would 
have won a national fame. Allusion is also made to Dr. 
Charles L. Cocke, the founder, and for over half a century 
the president, of Hollins Institute, Virginia. Under date 
of April 16th, 1860, Mr. Taylor wrote to his brother: 

"Monday morning I ascertained that by leaving then 
and in a freight train, and pushing a little, I could return 
within the week. This I promptly decided to do. So, 
hastily paying a couple of necessary visits and attend- 



62 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ing to sundry items of business, I packed my valise, kissed 
and blessed Sue and started. We stopped often and went 
slowly, so did not reach the railroad terminus until four 
o'clock, having gotten dinner with a family at one of 
the depots en route. ... At the depot I presented 
Mr. Mason's order for a conveyance, and in a few minutes 
a fine pair of horses pranced up with a buggy. Wasn't 
this grand? I drove to Covington and spent the night 
with a member of my church, who had recently moved 
out. He insisted not only on keeping me, but paying for 
my horses at the hotel. The next day I drove forty-four 
miles to the Blue Sulphur. ... In the afternoon 
the rain fell heavily and I got tolerably wet despite all 
protection. But I did not suffer from it materially. 
The meeting of the Board occupied the whole of 
the next day. . . . The students* are a noble-looking 
body of young men. They use Baptist Chorals, and it was 
glorious hearing them sing. We shall report ninety-four 
matriculates, several being preachers of promise. I at- 
tended two recitations, and was much gratified, especially 
with the class in Demosthenes. Thursday morning I 
addressed the students. . . . They heard me with 
fixed attention. ... As for the grounds, I fell more 
in love with them than ever. In the first flush of their 
spring glory they are a paradise indeed. 

"The meeting of the Board was an important one. They 
accepted the charter and adopted the title of Alleghany 



*One of these students, J. W. Carter, became a most able and 
eloquent preacher; was pastor of the Parkersburg, W. Va., Church, and 
of the First Baptist Church, Raleigh, N. C. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 63 

College, and organized, electing me President of the 
Board. They also wished me to take charge of the Insti- 
tution, but this I declined, and they committed the whole 
question of faculty to Brother Cocke and myself. 
. . . We think of adopting one feature which 
will be popular — to have a summer session, extending 
from 1st of March to 1st of December, giving the winter 
months as vacation. On Thursday afternoon I left, com- 
ing to Lewisburg to supper, and after supper driving nine 
miles to the White Sulphur. Friday morning, reached 
the railroad, by a drive of thirty miles, in time for the 
mail train and reached Staunton to supper, finding my 
dear Sue well and happy, and scarcely expecting me be- 
fore the next evening by the freight/' 

In a letter to his brother at the University he writes : 
"I think highly of your abstract, but didn't know six- 
hour speeches were allowed in society. You say that is 
your last appearance in society. Sue says : 'Because he 
has said all he knows in this speech.' 'This is a joke.' 
Last Sunday week I preached one of my best sermons, 
'the glorious gospel of the blessed God' ; and followed it 
with another last Sunday — not quite so good — from 'Only 
let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel.' In 
the last, I quoted a column from Macaulay on the Puri- 
tans from his article on Milton, which you are familiar 
with." 

On the very eve of war he writes to his mother : 
" . . . It was very trying, at a time so big with 
events, to have no mail, but I just concluded to take things 
quietly and plodded away with sermons, gardening and 



64 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the like. ... I am trying still to pursue the even 
tenor of my way. But it is very hard when times are 
so stirring in sister states, and a general civil war impends 
over our land. ... I am indulging hope now that 
our miserable convention will at once pass an ordinance of 
secession, if they have not already done so. O ! if they 
had only done this weeks ago and thus averted war. 

B is getting quite himself again. He will be 

a year old in a few days. He pushes a chair around the 
room till he is in a profuse perspiration. . . . He 
has three teeth. Bless his little heart — playing with him 
after dinner is a sweet recreation. And when I jump 
him to the ceiling, he fairly shrieks with pleasure. He 
is truly one of the greatest blessings of my life." 
A few days later he writes to his brother : 
" . . . I wish you would buy and bring me a half 
bushel or so of the North Carolina potatoes, also some 
bananas, if they happen to come in your way. Vegetables 
are very scarce with us. You will think me as 

troublesome as old Brother and with my 

commissions. You know the latter always watched with 
eagle eye for any one going to Richmond, so as to send for 
a cake of soap or a pound of nails, which were sure never 
to suit. . . . Have been preaching miserably lately. 
This morning by hard work and the grace of God, retrieved 
myself." 

In May 1861 the Southern Baptist Convention met in 
Savannah, Mr. Taylor being one of the recording secre- 
taries, and he tells of his trip, including a visit to Charles- 
ton, about a month after Fort Sumter had been taken : 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 65 

" . . . I liked, many things about the South. 
But I came back with a heightened appreciation of Old 
Virginia. We were told we could not see Sumter. I 
determined to try, and addressed Governor Pickens a note, 
which secured not only admission, but the quartermaster's 
boat for our party. The Governor and everybody seemed 
glad to do anything for Virginians. We all agreed the 
day, spent in visiting the several forts, among the most 
interesting of our lives. I brought back several souvenirs 
— as palmetto branches, and badges, shot thrown into 
Sumter, pictures of Beauregard and Davis. Everywhere 
in the South the tenderest sympathy is felt for the border 
states, and though the battle may be fought on our soil, 
the brethren south will stand by us to the last. All are 
anxious to fight, and that in Virginia. And already 
nearly everybody is in arms. From Richmond to Charles- 
ton is one camp. . . . B has learned to walk 

alone and is so beautiful. I never thought him so till now. 
I wish you could see him. Do you remember Pisistratus' 
brave uncle in 'The Caxtons' ? I have felt so proud of you 
and thought I would some day point you out to my boy 
as the brave soldier. . . . Our town is a rendezvous 
for troops, and companies are constantly encamped here. 
Yesterday every church had a company that came and 
left in file. . . . This morning I have been setting 
out plants. My place is lovely. I have a happy home, 
for which I trust I am thankful. But now I long to be 
with the men who are going to fight for their country. 
I am renewing my offer to be a chaplain. It is not 
probable I shall succeed, as there are so many applicants 



T)6 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and so few chaplaincies — only one for each brigade. 
I have bought Alfred's pistol — mean to teach Sue 
to shoot." 

A company of Home Guards was organized, in Staunton. 
When the time came to elect a captain — this was done 
by the candidates standing up side by side so that the 
men could form in line behind the man of their choice — 
to Mr. Taylor's surprise he was nominated. He was in- 
clined not to stand as a candidate, but, upon advice of 
some of his members, did so, never thinking of being 
elected over the other candidate, who was a prominent 
judge. Once up, Mr. Taylor felt some interest as to who 
was ahead, but had no way of knowing until he heard 
a fellow shout out : "The parson's a-getting 'em." He 
was elected. He at once secured uniforms for his men, 
bolts of grey cloth, and bushels of brass buttons coming 
from Richmond, and being made up by the women. Nor 
did he fail to drill his men. In the presence of one of 
his members some one remarked that they should never 
have elected Mr. Taylor as captain, since he knew nothing 
about military tactics. Quick from his loyal member 
came this answer: "Mr. Taylor may not know anything 
now about military tactics, but if there is a book on the 
subject in town, by to-morrow he will know all about it." 
It is this company to which reference is made in a letter 
to his brother, which also gives other items : 

a My company is much reduced. We are still in service 
and detail daily a guard. I suppose it is now certain we 
shall not go, as our quota of volunteers is made up. I 
may go as chaplain, though there is plenty to do here. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 67 

Last night I preached to the soldiers at the hospital. To- 
morrow I have three services — expect to preach to the 
troops in the a. m., and have a prayer-meeting for them 
at our church in the afternoon. We have rumor now 
of a battle near Rich Spring. . . . We had two 
soldiers here to dinner to-day. ... I have married 
three couples lately — twenty-five dollars in all. Very well, 
as I have received no salary for ever so long. By the 
way, I would send you some money if I knew you would 
receive this letter — and will do it when I hear the pony 
express is reliable." 

The next extract is from a letter to his brother who 
was in the army: 

"I ship to-day by mail train a basket for you, via Mill- 
boro, and have written to the quartermaster there to for- 
ward it promptly. It contains biscuits, cakes, loaf, ham, 
dried beef, flask of whiskey, bottle of Jamaica ginger, 

shoes for Lieutenant M (for which I paid $3.50 — they 

are the article made here for officers), shirt, socks, paper 
and envelopes, books and tracts. The ham is from Mrs. 
Linda — the other things from Sue and me. . . . The 
books I selected for their interest. In case you have to 
throw them away, no matter. But you can probably leave 
a bundle at some house to be kept till called for. I think 
Arnold would entertain me more than any book of its 
size that I know. I meet my company this p. m. to pay 
them commutation for rations. I anticipate a rich scene." 

About this time he added to all his other work that 
of teaching, taking charge of the Staunton Academy. 
The purpose of this was to supplement his small salary. 



68 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

He writes to one of his brothers, under date of October 
9th, 1861, as follows: 

" . . . I am going to try and send you some salt, 
in a paper by pony express. We have not been able to 
buy it here at all. I have sixteen scholars, and several 
more coming. Last week I was quite discouraged, but now 
think I shall have as many as I want. It is a worrying 
life, but has its pleasures. With the discontent natural 
to man, I often regret not being with you or James in the 
army. ,. . . Last Friday I broke school at twelve 
and took the girls to Natural Bridge. Preached at Lex- 
ington Sabbath, and came home after preaching, getting 
home by 9 p. m. Fast line. This is in school — I must 
close." 

Early in 1862 Mr. Taylor wrote to his brother : 

a B has quite recovered. He is very hearty and 

eats three and one-half buckwheat cakes (with cream, 
not butter) for a meal ; will not sleep during the day, 
but after supper gets his night gown and begins to undress. 
He gets into bed with a chuckle, and lies there while I 
sing 'The Hebrew Children' to him, and generally before 
I get to 'the weeping Mary' he is fast asleep. 

On that pretty day last week I took Sue and B to 

ride in the rockaway. It was glorious overhead, but a 
sea of mud beneath, till we got out of town on the macadam- 
ized road, where it was comparatively dry. . . . Yes- 
terday was pleasant. ... At night the house was 
crowded. I have tried recently to preach very practically 
and pointedly, principally to Christians. ... I have 
lately been led to much heart-searching by 'Pilgrim's 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 69 

Progress.' I can truly say: ' 'Tis a point I long to know, 
etc.' For what will all present good avail me, if I am at 
last lost, and what difference will any earthly sorrows 
make, if I may at last gain the celestial city? 
By the way, there is no paper here, so if you either have a 
supply, or can get it at reasonable prices, please send me 
some in the bundle. . . . We were caught this morn- 
ing nearly out of wood. I am going to haul a few sticks 
from my school house till we can get a load." 

Again he writes to his brother : 

"I will avail myself of Brother 's going, to send 

you a line ; also a pair of socks, and some reading, 
religious and entertaining. Perhaps I may get some 
goodies, but we have nothing in the house. . . . The 
religious books, read if you possibly can, and lend or give 
to others. The others, I thought, might make some weary 
hour pass less wearily. . . . The socks, if you don't 
need, you can give away, or you can readily sell them for 
fifty or seventy-five cents, in which event pocket the 

change. By the way, I have asked to let you have 

any money you need." 

On May 25th, 1862, he wrote to his parents: 

" We learn that a battle is probably now 

proceeding near Richmond, and I cannot but feel the pro- 
foundest solicitude, mingled, however, with strong hope 
that God will preserve our loved Richmond. ... I 
try patiently to commit the issue to Him. This lovely 
morning I preached from the words: 'The Lord God is a 
sun and shield.' I enjoyed preaching and closed by a 
reference to Richmond. O ! that God may prove a shield 



70 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

to the city of my first and second birth. I had not felt 
well for a few days, which I attributed to the hot weather 
and being so much in the offensive air of the hospitals. 
So, expecting to preach twice to-day, I took yesterday as a 
day of rest. In consequence I feel much refreshed." 

The next letter, dated Camp, near Dublin, Va., and 
addressed to one of his brothers, tells of a battle: 

" . . Since we have been in service, our com- 

pany has enjoyed some little experience in active war- 
fare. Our first encounter with the Yanks was at Giles 
Court House. This was a rather small affair. Our force 
was nearly double theirs, notwithstanding which they stood 
and fought us for an hour and then succeeded in getting 
away with small loss. The next morning, while we were 
on the outposts with our gun, the Yankees brought up a 
piece and drove in our pickets, and from behind a bend 
in the road opened a twelve pounder upon us. We could 
not see the effects of our shots, but one of our pickets, 
who was stationed so as to see the enemy, told us that we 
exploded two or three shells right among them. At any 
rate the Union Lovers soon 'shut up shop/ My hopes of 
military renown have, however, found an early grave. 

"You have perhaps read some accounts in the papers of 
the battle of Lewisburg. I had the honor, or dishonor (as 
you please), of being engaged in that disastrous fight. 
It was one of the most complete, disastrous, 'bull-run' 
defeats of the war. I have been surprised and grieved 
beyond expression to think that we had such incompetent 
generals and cowardly soldiers in our army. The defeat 
was due in the first place to General Holt's ordering the 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 71 

troops in a position where the enemy had every advantage, 
and secondly to the cowardice of the men who would not 
stand till reinforcements could be sent to their aid. Our 
rifle gun was ordered down into the town, not two hundred 
yards from the enemy, and no sooner had we reached 
this position than the regiment supporting us broke and 
retreated in the greatest confusion. We had no officer with 
us, and not wishing to retreat without orders we stood 
by our gun till nearly every infantryman had passed us, 
when we saw that retreat was all that remained ; but 
being in a very narrow lane, it was only with greatest 
difficulty we could turn the horses around. We tore down 
the fence and reversed the limber amid a storm of bullets, 
but had we then stopped to limber up the gun we would 
certainly have taken a trip to Columbus. The Yanks 
were not over thirty yards from us when our sergeant 
ordered us to leave. I cannot express to you my feelings 
when I was thus forced to turn my back upon my country's 
foe. Men, white with terror, were seen panting as they 
ran, and every scene of the day tended to shake our faith 
in Southern chivalry or Yankee cowardice. Your old 
command i Stonewall' is indeed, if accounts are true, work- 
ing wonders in the Valley." 

The following extract from a letter, dated June 15th, 
to his parents, shows that Mr. Taylor was now chaplain 
of a regiment (it was the Twenty-fifth Virginia) : 

" . . Yesterday p. m. we were called on by Gen- 

eral Jackson to observe with religious exercises a season 
of thanksgiving for our late victories. On about an hour's 
notice I preached to the 25th and 13th regiments from 



*9 



LIFE AND LETTERS OF 



Psalm cxxiv. I had a fine crowd, who were very attentive, 
and I enjoyed the service. ... I am on the river 
bank, to let my horse graze, and hoping to have privacy 
in the shade. But four other persons have been lying 
around. They are all busy reading my tracts which I 
have given them. Yesterday I spent some time distributing 
tracts, etc., and getting acquainted in my regiment. 
. Monday I went to Staunton. . . . Yester- 
day but against grain, but for conscience' sake, started 
back to camp. En route heard the army had left. I 
struck across the woods, and managed after dark to meet 
them at the new camp. Supped at ten and then bivouacked 
for the first time. To-day we came on to this place by a 
bridle path over Jarman's Gap, the wagons coming by 
the Rockfish. No one dreams where we are going. My 
brigade is camped right at Mountain Plain Church." 

His letters to his wife from camp were numerous and 
long. A few sentences from several of these letters help 
us to see his work and privations, and anxiety for his 
wife and children. On July 7th from Camp Nameless, 
near Charles City Court House, he wrote : 

" Sunday morning, though only half rested, 

and against the protestations of the family, I started, my 

horse having been left by Brother W , to find my 

mythical regiment. O ! it was an awfully hot day ; my 
skin was burnt sore, and my brain seemed to boil. On, 
on over a sandy, shadeless road I pressed. . . . Late 
in the evening ... I found our division and then 
my brigade and regiment. The Colonel seemed glad to 
see me, and gave me some sugarless tea (taken from the 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 73 

Yanks), which much refreshed me. ... In a few 
moments I was preaching to a large and attentive crowd, 
and, notwithstanding my hot ride of thirty miles, I en- 
joyed the service highly." 

On July 18th from Louisa Court House he wrote to his 
wife: 

"You see by the date of this we are again en route for 
the upper country; whether the Valley or not we cannot 
certainly tell. This is a dismal day. . . . O for 
seven-league boots that I might step over to Danville and 
for an hour at least . . . hold your hand, look into 
your eyes ! . . . For the first time I felt like a pastor, 
and, besides preaching, gave the men a talk. ... At 
11 I heard William Thomas at the 13th, and in the p. m. 
John Jones preached for me. Then how joyfully did I 
turn homeward [i. e., towards his father's home in Rich- 
mond] .... Brother Prichard was expecting to leave 
the next morning, but as I offered him a congregation and 
a ride over one of the battle-fields, he gladly consented 
to remain another day. So Monday a. m. I got him a 
passport, and, failing to secure a horse, hitched mine to 
the broken-down buggy (which even Alfred had aban- 
doned), and started out. For a few miles I momentarily 
expected a breakdown, but courage increased with ex- 
perience, and we made the trip of twenty-odd miles 
with comfort and safety. . . . We had a narrow 
escape of life or limb. As we were proceeding on the 
narrow road, raised in the Chickahominy swamp, a runa- 
way team and wagon came dashing upon our rear at a 
fearful speed. We had just time to get out and lead our 



74 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

horse down the embankment, when they passed, the wagon 
passing within a few inches of our vehicle. . . . We 
reached the camp in the p. m., a little before I designed to 
have service, but found the troops gone. Through the 
trees a short distance off we could see the long line in 
motion." 

On July 22nd, in camp, near Liberty Mills, Orange 
County, he wrote to his wife : 

"More constantly and more tenderly than I can convey 
to you have I thought of you since I last wrote. 
I hope you will remember in reading this unconnected 
epistle the circumstances under which I write ; that I 
am sitting on the ground, and am jostled and even more 
seriously interrupted every half minute. . . . We 
have gone into camp here, drill grounds selected, and 
drills ordered, as if we might remain for a few days at 
least. Still we might move at any time." 

In July he writes to his mother from Staunton, whither 
he had gone from camp for a brief visit : 

" . . . Rested sweetly, but excited at the idea of 
leaving for Staunton. Waked early Friday morning 
and was soon, with numberless commissions, en route for 
Gordonsville, where I left my mare with Brother Cow- 
herd and came hither. I prayed that God would smile 
on my visit, and so He has, as never were two days more 
profitably and pleasantly spent. I have lately felt God's 
great goodness to me. He has indeed made my cup run 
over. I think sometimes my heart runs over too, which 
in turn sweetens the joy of every blessing." 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 75 

Here is an extract of a letter from Staunton to one of 
his brothers : 

"I do not think of you now with exactly the same 
feelings as when you first entered the service. Then, I 
was positively unhappy as I lay down in my pleasant 
bed. Now, I know, by experience, one can sleep very 

comfortably on the ground. . . . B is very well 

and full of life. He insists that his name is not James 
but George — says he has the same name as his pa. He is 
a very good boy. . . . Our hospitals have much 
diminished the number of their patients, sending off large 
numbers, to try to clear out the smallpox. Still I have 
enough to do. I distribute a great many religious papers 
from Virginia and the South. I also attend funerals of 
soldiers who die. I am favored in being permitted to 
keep my horse at the government stables. I am glad 
your mare is better broke ; I heard of her tricks at 
several places and feared you might get hurt." 

Unable to get permission, even by applying to the Secre- 
tary of War, to go to the Virginia General Association 
meeting in Richmond, in 1863, he writes to his brother: 

" . . . In case I cannot attend the General Asso- 
ciation I enclose the following contributions : Staunton 
Church and Sunday school, $540.79. . . . George 
rides behind very well — rode ten miles the other day on 
a stretch. He is getting quite into the merits of the war 
— prays for the sick soldiers, and that God will send the 
Yankees home — says Lee is a good man and so is Jeff 
Davis — and all I assure you in no parrot strain. He is 
now playing soldier, with a canteen around his neck." 



76 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

On May 29th, 1862, he wrote to his wife from Win- 
chester : 

" . . . I left that evening. . . . Tuesday 
morning I joined Brother Fry, and we trudged along very 
leisurely, as I specially was heavily loaded. ... As 
we were dining, Tom Peyton and Johnnie Hoge passed 
in a two-horse buggy, bound for Winchester to buy goods. 
They took my saddle-bags, and I subsequently got part 
of my roll on a wagon. Yesterday we came over forty 
miles. ... At Strasburg we saw the enemy's forti- 
fications, where it had been supposed they would stand. 
From that point to this were strewn the evidences of 
their precipitate flight — haversacks, camp kettles, half- 
burnt wagons, hundreds of letters and newspapers. 
. We stayed last night at Cedar Creek, where be- 
gan the running fight which lasted till this place. 
This morning we came on with a Colonel who took us 
to and over the battle-field of Kernstown. . . . Went 
to a store, where I bought you two dresses and one for 

B or Sally, with all necessary trimmings. . 

The running foe tried to fire the town, and burnt some 
buildings, but we certainly got large stores, ammunition, 
guns, wagons, horses, etc., besides all sorts of knicknacks 
from the sutlers' establishments." 

In these letters many of the marked characteristics of 
Mr. Taylor shine out; his deep religious nature, his 
generosity, his sympathy with men, his energy, his in- 
tellectual vigor. Some years later Mr. Taylor baptized 
Mr. Mason, to whom he alludes in the next letter, the 
ordinance being administered in Christian's Creek, as Mr. 



77 

Mason desired to be baptized in running water rather than 
in the church baptistery. This letter, dated December 
7th, 1863, was to his brother Charles: 

" . . . Brethren Abel, Walton, Hoge and Hughes 
and Mr. Mason have been spending the evening with us 
and have just left. Mr. M told me that the author- 
ities, to-day, impressed every hog he had (about 100), but 
had spared my four which he was keeping for me. What 
a noble man he is ! Sometimes I almost hope he is a 
Christian. We had to-night some conversation about 
preparation for eternity. I feel encouraged and stimu- 
lated to greater private effort, with him and with others, 
to impart spiritual good. How prone we preachers are 
to preach about eternity, but out of the pulpit to speak 
only of time ! Brother Walton goes to Richmond to 
plead for Alleghany College. His success so far is re- 
markable. If nothing unforeseen occurs, we shall com- 
pletely succeed. We have need of great patience, but I 
look yet to see our school a fountain of good to Western 
Virginia. I have given him a bundle, consisting of 
blanket for Jemmie (a very fine one), oil cloth for you, 
and mother's shoes. . . . He [the baby, George] was 
almost as happy Saturday night, when I brought home 
father's portrait, exclaiming, 'O my grandpa is come P 
It is an excellent picture ; cost me only thirty dollars, and 
I would not sell it for one thousand, so that I begin to 
think that Confederate money is not so bad after all. I 
only regret that I cannot invest ten times the amount in 
getting similar portraits of mother and all my dear and 
handsome relations. It is not the lack of monev that is 



i b LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

in the way. . . . Brother A was going after the 

corpse of a medical student, who was at his house when 
we were, and who probably heard no warning but mine 
before his death. This fact, with attending circum- 
stances, decided me to discard my preparation for Sabbath 
morning a. m., and preach to the unconverted. I was up 

late, attending to getting passports for Mrs. K , and 

other ladies, who were going down the Valley, and then 
up very early Sunday morning to get them off. I laid 
down worn out and fell asleep, waking five minutes before 
eleven. I hurried up, . . . feeling poorly prepared. 
Imagine my feelings at seeing the Presbyterian congre- 
gation going almost en masse to our church. But I tried 
to cast myself on the Lord and try to save souls — told the 
people about my having changed my sermon and why I 
had done so. At night I preached to a jammed house; 
baptized five persons, making some remarks. I came 
home tired and hungry ; met the new housekeeper [of the 

Virginia Hotel] , Mrs. D , and, accompanying her into 

the store-room, begged her for some milk. She gave me, 
with astonished looks, mother's great big mug full of rich, 
cold milk. How delicious the draught, especially after I 
had added sugar (O Vicksburg!), and some of Susan's 
whiskey. . . . Now why give you such minutiae? 
Simply because I have often heard that this made a letter 
interesting, and I want to try the experiment. Following 
out the idea : we had turkey for breakfast this morning. It 
is indeed a novelty, but who shall say it is a bad conceit ? 
Certainly not one who enjoyed his breakfast as I did this 
morning. They intended to have the turkey for supper last 



KEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 79 

night, but changed. Query — Isn't turkey always good ? 
Query again — Why shouldn't we get some fashions from 
the Dutch, and not all from the French ? I saw Schaffer 
buy a lot of the bipeds the other day and the coop is in 
sight of my window. I find my own wood now, and so do 
others, it would seem; for, painful evidence of depravity, 
a good cord was brought on Friday and is now half gone ! 
Schaffer will raise to $180 per month 1st of January. I 
am positively scared. . . . But then Schaffer will 
give us any quantity of sauer kraut, and teach us to speak 
Dutch gratis" 

In the summer of 1860 the buildings of the "Blue 
Sulphur," where Alleghany College was located, had been 
burned. This disaster, together with the war, ended the 
institution, which had had such a successful beginning, 
and which gave such promise of large growth and useful- 
ness. How arduous and successful Mr. Taylor's efforts 
were for the College is proved by this extract from a letter 
to his wife describing his work for the College : 

" . . . I came by stage to this place, and procur- 
ing a horse set out on a trip through the country, from 
which I have just returned. A most fatiguing one it has 
been, the horse a hard trotter, the country exceedingly 
broken. ... I have also been quite successful, 
averaging $400 per day. . . . Now I only lack about 
$1,000 of securing Greenbrier's quota. . . . The 
worst of my experiences this week has been my not hear- 
ing a word from home, not being able since Tuesday to 
mail you a letter. This has been a sore privation, but a 



80 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

necessary one, out of the region of post offices as I have 
been/' 

The next letter was written on June 16th, 1864, when 
once again Mr. Taylor was keeping house. This is to his 
brother Charles : 

" . . Do not be surprised at father 's reticence on 

such a subject. He was equally reserved to me when I 
was where you are. Nay, whenever I have been in 
similar embarrassment. He is so from principle — think- 
ing it best for one to work out such a problem alone with 
God. He is so from the perfect refinement of his nature, 
which makes him shrink from intermeddling (even when 
asked) with the finer issues of the soul, even when, nay 
all the more when, they are those of his near relations. 
And, after all, you will find more and more — the mourn- 
fullest thing in life — that in almost everything we have 
to go by ourselves. In a lesser sense we have to follow 
Him who 'trod the wine press alone.' Specially in de- 
ciding questions of personal duty I have found precious 
little help from my best friends. They can pray for 
us — be sorry for us — possibly give us some general advice, 
but after all everyone must for himself solve the problem. 
But the Holy Ghost, if sought, will lead us into all truth 
and duty. . . . Last Wednesday I rose early and 

went with B , encountering ten fences to Brother 

Summerson's, got a horse, which B rode home entirely 

alone bareback, I on ' Yankee.' I spent the day in plough- 
ing my corn and potatoes, and in hauling two loads of 
wood. Whether it was fatigue, hollering 'Gee,' 'Haw,' or 
cooling off too fast, I don't know, but I soon got so hoarse 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 81 

I could hardly speak, and since have been used up gener- 
ally. It was a terrible day's work. But I thought I ought 
to work the corn. ... I have lately read a good 
deal in Dr. Johnson. He was a great and good man. I 
have also read much in Macaulay, Carlyle and Mackin- 
tosh. I am surprised at my style not becoming better. 
Send me an essay of two pages on the foundation 
of the obligation to veracity, and I will do anything you 
tell me." 

Under date of July 4th, 1864, he writes to his brother 
Charles : 

" . . The cherries are nearly gone, but they 

have been much more delicious as they have become more 
perfectly ripe. . . . My old Yankee rip has improved 
finely. I have ridden him three days — one day nine 
miles — and he bids fair to answer for my riding. It is 
certainly much better than trudging with a sore heel on 
a hot day. But I fear he is too high strung for the 
buggy. ... I was trying last night to teach George 
and Alice about the soul (s-o-u-1), but found their ideas 
all of s-o-l-e, and desisted in despair. I said, 'George, 
what is it in you that loves me ? Is it your hand ? Your 
foot?' 'No, Pa, it's my love.' . . . Monday, E well's 
corps came and encamped all around us, Breckenridge's, 
Rhodes' and Gordon's divisions all within half a mile, 
and the two former within three hundred yards. Colonel 
Winston, commanding Daniel's Brigade, a worthy Baptist, 
had headquarters near our spring. . . . We had him, 
and several members of his staff, two chaplains and a 
good many soldiers, Joe Ficklin and Carter Braxton, to 



82 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

take meals with us, besides which Sue was giving milk 
or bread, or sewing on buttons or something for some- 
body all day. It was rather worrying, but we both en- 
joyed doing something for the i ragged soldiers/ as George 
called them. . . . Our men were almost uniformly 

well-behaved. Colonel D insisted on giving us a 

guard, who, however, was hardly needed, and did little 
but protect one cherry tree, which I reserved. The rest 
were filled all day, well picked, and highly enjoyed by 
the men. . . . After our men left, we got some in- 
valuable soap grease; I bought some utensils. We could 
have gotten hundreds of dollars' worth had we descended 
to the grab game as many did." 

Mr. Taylor had in his church more than one member 
who was generous and kind to the pastor; the following 
extract from a letter refers, among other things, to a 
handsome gift from one of this number: 

" . . . I have just had the present of a fine 
cow from Mr. Peyton. I feel uncomfortably grateful. 
I wrote you of my preaching on the Eternity of God. 
I subsequently lighted on a subtle disquisition on that 
theme by Addison in the Spectator." 

It may be well to quote from a letter to his brother 
Charles, written in September, 1864, in order that later 
on the reader may see how Mr. Taylor eventually gained 
a victory over morbidness : 

"Though but yesterday I mailed you a four-page epistle, 
I will not resist the inclination to pen a few lines more 
to-day. I have enjoyed the summer hugely, principally 
in the opportunities afforded for quiet study. I fear they 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 83 

are over, as the weather requires a constant fire, and I 
can't afford an extra one for myself. I think I would 
afford it so far as the money goes, but I have great fears 
about getting fuel in sufficiency this winter, for chamber 
and kitchen. ... In all the brightness of yesterday 
I was gloomy, miserable. To-day I have felt peaceful, 
if not happy. There is one good thing in these miserable 
fits, they drive one to prayer — such prayer as one does 
not offer morning and evening, when it is partly, at least, 
from habit, or principle at best. The prayers I most 
enjoy, or rather those whose blessed effects I feel most, 
I put up on horseback, as I ride in solitude, after the 
cares and temptations of a morning in town. 'Out of the 
depths have I cried unto thee.' I am conscious there is 
something morbid in many of my exercises. Yet I can- 
not away with them any more than I could with head- 
ache or dyspepsia. ... I feel my mind is what a 
human body would be, were the skin off — it shrinks and 
shivers at every contact. . . . For mother's sake I 
will give you our bill of fare. Bacon, snap beans, boiled 
corn, coffee, baked apples and milk. A very good dinner. 
Often do I say, 'When all Thy mercies, O my God !' But 
don't think us extravagant. Vide our butteries s break- 
fasts and suppers, often for days together. Gravy is very 
good. ... I have just had a new illustration of 
the line: 'Maidens, like moths, are taken with the glare.' 
We have raised two roosters — a long-legged, brilliant game, 
and a short-coupled, sturdy Conestoga. One had to go 
up. I voted the game, but going into the kitchen found 
Sue had doomed the Conestoga, and the fellow of gay 



84 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

plumage will be cock of the yard in future. 
Yesterday was another of my happy days. ... I 
spent a couple of hours foraging — found a little silver 
quite influential. Then proceeded to hospital — then got 
wagon and had sugar and my rations brought out — found 
a fine quarter of mutton, bought some weeks since, had 
preceded me. After a hearty dinner of Conestoga pie 
. went to Reserve Camp hard by, and preached 
from the words 'It is finished/ to a remarkably attentive 
congregation. On returning home, did not lose my 
placidity, though called on to administer quite a threshing 
to — an apple tree, the fruit of which our ladies are now 
peeling to dry." 

Mr. Taylor had now for some time been living at the 
Kinney place outside of Staunton. The letters of this 
year show that the suffering caused by the war was in- 
creasing. This letter was to his brother: 

" . . . Getting leave of absence for a few days 
gave me more trouble than one ought to have to cross the 
Atlantic. . . . Got a half-fare ticket to Rockbridge 
Baths of M. G. Harman, paying for the round trip 
thirty dollars. Saturday after a rather earlier breakfast 
of flannel cakes, accompanied by Sue, George and Sally, 
I walked, with carpet bag in hand, to the gate and sat on 
the bridge till presently the stage with four noble white 
horses hove in sight — said horses trotting nimbly enough, 
but not prancing, as the picture on the way-bills and ad- 
vertisements represents. Took an outside seat and enjoyed 
every inch of the ride. It turned cold, but Brosius 
(driver) loaned me overcoat. . . . We reached 



REV. GEOEGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 85 

Brother D 's house by three o'clock. ... At dusk 

Brother D came in from furnace, and six or seven 

girls, just from Jump Mountain. . . . Sunday a. m., 
a good deal stuffed up with cold, I started on a Morgan 
stallion for Goshen. You know the wild beauty of the 
scenery. I could not enjoy it, for soon it began to rain 
and it was more than I could do to keep dry. Preached 
to a very small congregation indeed. I wondered any one 
Avas out, as it rained steadily from nine to two. . . . 
Monday . . . rode back to Baths. Tuesday a. m. 
took a bath before breakfast — rather imprudent. 
A stage was brought out solely to bring me over about 
eight miles to intercept regular stage on the Greenville 
road. Had rather a stupid ride to Staunton, relieved by 
Hazlitt's Table Talk — a pleasant book, though not the sort 
you can remember. . . . Aunt Fannie goes down 
Saturday. We shall send mother a bag of dried apples — 
our own work and very nice. . . . She must count 
on me for a turkey when I come. . . . You have no 
idea how hard it is to find anything. And to my surprise, 
at Goshen, I found butter six dollars/' 

The next letter, addressed to his mother, and dated 
March 1st, 1865, helps one to realize that the end of the 
war was approaching: 

" . . . On Monday we had a grand mass meet- 
ing, and raised 8,000 pounds bacon, 140 barrels flour, and 
$100,000 as a contribution for the Government. Yester- 
day news received that the Yankees are approaching in 
heavy force. I came home and commenced hiding my 
things, principally all the meat. I put it in half a dozen 



86 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

different places, and by night was about the tiredest man 
vou ever saw. . . . We think the Yankees will 
probably come." 

The next letter refers to the close of the war. During 
the war Mr. Taylor was very active as a preacher and 
took an important part in the revival of religion, which 
swept over the Army of Northern Virginia. During one 
of his absences in the army, his family being refugees in 
Danville, his third child was born, lived a few weeks, and 
died before news could reach him of events so near to 
his heart. Of Grace, this little one who was cut off like 
a flower, he used to say : "Whom not having seen I love." 

A few weeks after the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, 
Mr. Taylor wrote as follows to his brother from Richmond : 

" . . . Your telegram after the evacuation was 
gratefully received. . . . Unable to hear anything 
from father's family, and feeling a deep anxiety, besides 
a curiosity to see the outside world, and a desire to dis- 
cuss 'the situation' with somebody out of Staunton, I deter- 
mined to make my way to Richmond. . . . Three 
weeks since I left home and came very comfortably, mak- 
ing the interval between Medium's River and Keswick, 
twenty miles, on foot, and with a hand car. ... I 
have just made a hurried trip to Baltimore, where I re- 
ceived a most cordial welcome from my old friends, and 
had a delightful time, though I was quite sick for two 
days — in fact I have been 'donsy' ever since leaving home. 
I bought a good many articles of necessity for our folks 
here and for myself, and received one or two presents. 
The June meetings have been unusually interesting. I 



REV. GEORGE BOABDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 87 

have never heard more good and less poor speaking. 
Last night I aided in the ordination of Thomas 
Hume, Jr., who takes charge of the First Church, Peters- 
burg. 

"I was glad to hear that you had so promptly gone to 
work. It was a wise and noble step, and will be greatly 
conducive to your happiness. In times like these, we need 
to be actively engaged to keep from being unhappy. For 
my part I accept the facts as indicating God's will, and 
acquiesce with a peace of mind I had not thought possible. 
Perhaps it is a fulfilment of the promise, 'As thy day is 
so shall thy strength be.' Still I confess that ever and 
anon the sad facts come over me with fresh power, and 
almost crush and paralyze me. But it is all right, and 
we must remember that we are chiefly connected with a 
kingdom which is mot of this world.' ... I am not 
without fears for the future. The North is now as 
clamorous for negro suffrage as they were for emanci- 
pation. Then I fear for the negro himself, lest he be 
crushed between the upper and nether millstone. But 
I have faith that God will overrule all things for the 
best interests of His cause and people. Dr. Sampson 
spent an evening with us. He thinks the South has 
achieved a moral and substantial victory — that slavery 
will essentially continue, and that we will bear our full 
part in the affairs of the country. I feel a deep solici- 
tude for our late President, and bear very hardly the dis- 
memberment of our old Mother State. But because a 
Christian, I hope to be a good citizen." 



CHAPTER IV 

The " Reconstruction Period " — University Chaplaincy — Trip to Europe 

Ah, happy hills, ah, pleasing shade, 



Where once my careless childhood strayed. 

— Gray. 
+ 

If times were hard with the people of the South during 
the war, the situation was in many respects more desperate 
in the years' which immediately followed. Certainly this 
was the case with Mr. Taylor. The hardships which he 
and his wife, neither of them very strong in body, had to 
bear, made a serious draft on their constitutions, yet how 
cheerful was their spirit, how earnest their work, how 
large and kind their hospitality ! Let Mr. Taylor's letters 
go on with the story. As will be seen from this first letter, 
the family moved, in the fall of 1865, from the country, 
to rented rooms in town, remaining there until Mr. 
Taylor purchased the old "Harraff House," which had 
been built in 1796. To his mother he writes: 

" Thursday, busy taking down bedsteads, 

packing books and otherwise preparing to move. 
In the p. m. rode some thirteen miles on horseback to 
marry a couple. Had a fine supper, and pretty pleasant 
time, but got only five dollars. Had fully intended to 
remain all night, but on thinking how necessary I and 




From a Photograph by Miley, about 1871 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 89 

my horse would be the next morning, I determined to 
brave the long, cold and lonely ride. I reached home 
about midnight, with a fine bundle of cake, and Sue and 
George got up and made a fire and sat with me in their 
night gowns, while I warmed. Such moments are among 
the pleasant episodes of life. Friday and Saturday were 

devoted to moving, our ever kind Mr. P sending his 

great big wagon, and a hired one with my horse also run- 
ning. . . . We are in the second story of the 'Old 
National.' One immense room has been cut into four. 
The main inconvenience is having but one en- 
trance and having no store-room or closet. We have a 
nice new cooking stove, and shall eat in the kitchen this 
winter. The servants have a nice room, elegantly fur- 
nished, upstairs. Brother J. B. Hoge and family occupy 
the rest of the floor. There are, besides, perhaps a dozen 
different families from garret to cellar . . . and the 
provost marshal has his office and quarters down stairs. 
I do not repine, indeed am conscious of being better off 
than I deserve and have no doubt we shall be happy here, 
but you can readily see I shall be in some respects far 
from comfortable. . . . Now I must tell you of an 
annoyance which would have tried the patience of Job. 
You know I made a fine crop of oats. It, with some hay, 
was hauled over here, and with some difficulty was stored 
in my basement stable. The last of the four immense 
loads was just fairly in Saturday p. m., when knock, knock 
at the door. In walked the town sergeant ! ' You will 
have to remove all that provender at once. Against town 
ordinance.' I got a respite till to-day, then went out and 



90 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

sold my provender at a sacrifice. I am so used to such 
things, have scarcely been worried. Have to-day sold 
one cow and arranged temporarily to keep the other and 
horse at a neighboring stable. I start in the a. m. for 
Lexington, to remain several days." 

The next letter records the birth of a fourth daughter, 
Mary. Reference is made to Rev. A. H. Sands, a preacher 
and also an able lawyer and author. Sally Moore, to whom 
reference is made, was the child who, born November 6th, 
1863, had died of diphtheria, August 14th, 1865 : 

" . . . During the past ten days I have been a 
constant sufferer with rheumatism. I could scarcely, for 
hours together, move myself on the bed, and in fact could 
not be moved without suffering. I have found partial 
relief from cupping, and the application of spirits of 
turpentine. Yesterday a. m., a little after midnight, 
Susan . . . became the mother of another daughter. 
George is overflowing with happiness. I am thankful 
for the babe, and that it is robust and perfect and pretty 
and that Sue is so well, but my joy is very sober. Not only 
are my thoughts constantly of my golden-haired Sally 
Moore; but I feel how probably we will keep this little 
one only long enough to love her and to make parting a 
pang. This, however, should only guard me against an 
idolatrous love. If a friend loans me a lovely flower to 
bloom in my window, should I forbear to enjoy it simply 
because he may some day recall it ? Specially if I knew 
that he is a wise and good friend, and will not take the 
flower back, unless it be for its good and my highest 
happiness in the end. Specially if I am assured he will 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 91 

one day give it to me again to keep always. What a 
solution of difficulties could be afforded by the constant 
remembrance — the deep conviction of the oneness of the 
two lives, this and that side of Jordan — of the nearness 
and narrowness of that stream! 

"Urged by J. B. T. Jr., A. H. S. and others, I came 
home resolved to make a fair trial of writing out sermons. 
Have written out two. Am rather pleased with result. 
But it is still an experiment. Of this I am satisfied, it 
is at least no more labor — I question if 'tis as much to 
write out a sermon as to prepare it equally well without 
writing. I shall be very glad some day to have you and 
others, who can judge and are candid, hear me and tell 
me how I can be most effective — by writing or by not 
writing. . . . During my sick spells have been read- 
ing Sterne. Uncle Toby is such a character, and the 
quotations from the book are so general that I thought 
it not wrong to read it. It is a book full of wit and 
humor and eloquence and human nature, but in places 
tiresome and often vile and impure. . . . Have lately 
read several of Wayland's sermons. He is distinguished 
for Doric simplicity and stateliness." 

After the war, Mr. Taylor was in the habit of preach- 
ing on Sunday afternoons in the basement of his church 
to the colored people. In a letter to his brother he says : 
"Last Sunday I baptized six colored persons. My colored 
congregations large and interesting." The following 
sentence is but one of many evidences of what a faithful 
pastor he was : "I have solemnly resolved to attempt sixty 



92 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

pastoral visits this week, preparatory to going to Scotts- 
ville next week to help Long in a protracted meeting." 

In a letter dated February 10th, 1867, he writes to his 
brother : 

" . During the past week I have been reading 

'Ecce Homo.' I find much in it to differ from, still I 
think it a book to do some minds great good. ... I 
have set to work in good earnest to finish ' Coster Grew, 
or the Young Machinist' — mean to finish it in a few 
days. This and my sermons and my visits will absorb 
me for a few days." 

Before this time Mr. Taylor had published "The Oak- 
land Stories," a series of four volumes, "Kenny," "Cousin 
Guy," "Claiborne," "Gustave," for young people, the 
scene of these books being laid in Baltimore. They were 
written on the same general plan as the "Abbott Books," 
yet with an individuality of their own. They had a wide 
circulation and must have given much pleasure and done 
great good. "Coster Grew," a Sunday-school story with 
a healthy, religious tone, appeared in a short time, and 
has proved so popular that it is still published. It was 
followed by "Roger Bernard," another Sunday-school 
story of about the same length. 

In a letter to his brother Charles, under date of July 
15th, 1867, he alludes to Dr. B. Sears, the agent of the 
Peabody Fund: 

" . . Friday night, by invitation, I took tea at 

General Echols' with Dr. Barnas Sears, and on Satur- 
day I had him to dine with me. . . . He is very 
affable, catholic in spirit and interesting in conversation. 



REV*. GEORGE BOARD MAN TAYLOR, D. D. 93 

Yesterday I preached three times, besides con- 
ducting Sunday school and colored people's meeting, and 
to-day feel as much like a cabbage as a man." 

In his anniversary sermon in Staunton, already quoted 
from, Mr. Taylor thus referred to the coming to Staunton 
of two distinguished men: 

"The removal to Staunton, just after the war, of the 
Rev. Dr. Barnas Sears, who had baptized Oncken, and 
been president of Brown University, and later of Brother 
John Hart, M. A., of the University of Virginia, was a 
providential blessing to the Baptist cause here. For the 
first time in its history this church had members, the 
peers in every respect of the first citizens. They were 
both men of very high character and position, and as 
church members their influence was the best possible." 

The next letter, dated August 6th, 1867, refers to the 
completion of the railroad to Covington. This road, now 
known as the Chesapeake and Ohio, extends, to-day, 
exactly as its name says, from the Chesapeake Bay to the 
Ohio River: 

" . . . I also attended the picnic and speaking at 
Covington, in honor of the railroad opening to that place. 
. We spent the night at Brother Abraham's, and 
the next day was occupied in a grand Sunday-school cele- 
bration. I spoke an hour before dinner on 'the hand,' and 

Dr. B after dinner on 'habit' . . . Sunday was 

a heavy day with me; I attended five services, besides 
communion." 

The "Lyceum" mentioned in the next letter had in it 
the leading lawyers, the ministers and other literary people 



i)4: LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

of the town, and Mr. Taylor keenly enjoyed the meet- 
ings, taking an active part. He writes to his brother 
Charles : 

" ... In the p. m. I heard a colored brother 
preach. I may have been prejudiced against him from 
knowing of his trying to bite off his master's nose . 
but he did not edify me much. Friday night we had 
quite a spirited debate at the Lyceum, in which I partici- 
pated, on the morality of drinking spirits as a beverage. 
We whipped out the liquor men, fair fight. 
Vale, vale, sed spero non longum vale, carissime frater. 
Georgius Apis Sartor/' 

At this time, in order to supplement his salary, which 
was small and inadequate, Mr. Taylor taught, for one or 
two sessions, a select private school. It is certain that 
he was overburdened with work. Allusion is also made 
to Rev. W. E. Hatcher, D. D., for many years pastor of 
the Grace Street Baptist Church, Richmond, Va. To his 
brother he writes : 

" . . . We expect Hatcher to deliver his lecture 
here on the 26th. . . . Our choir is also in high 
practice for a concert for benefit of our church. ... I 
give Dwight Sears two lessons per week in Cicero and two 
in Xenophon. He also recites four mornings a week in a 
Natural Philosophy class. . . . My school jogs on. 
Sometimes I feel that it will worry my very life out of 
me, and perhaps involve me in difficulties with somebody. 

. . But I could not have lived without the pittance 
it affords, and I trust patience is being cultivated. .. . 
I have never known such pressure as I now feel." 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 95 

The next letter, also to his brother Charles, is dated 
April 4th, 1868 : 

" . . This week George and I have been sleep- 

ing upstairs. . . . The new boy, alias Carter Brax- 
ton, is pronounced by experts to be a No. 1, and even I 
am impressed by his blended talent and amiability. 

"Last night, by special request of the Lyceum, I re- 
peated my lecture. Being very unwell, I was much ex- 
hausted and spent a wakeful, restless night, in consequence 
of which I have been wretchedly sick to-day. ... I 
am in receipt of a letter informing me of my appoint- 
ment as agent and chaplain of Hollins Institute. The 
appointment to be a permanent one. . . . I have 
little or no idea of accepting, though I may take a tour for 
them in the summer." 

In the next letter he alludes to the meeting, in May, 
1868, of the Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore, 
and to speeches made by Rev. Drs. A. M. Poindexter and 
J. L. M. Curry. Dr. Curry was member of Congress 
before the Civil War; agent of the Peabody Fund, and 
minister to Spain under President Cleveland: 

"... Father, mother, J. W. Jones, T. E. 
Skinner and I stayed at Brother Wilson's, i. e., nighted 
and breakfasted there, for we dined at the church. 
The meeting was as spiritual as any I have ever attended, 
indicating wonderful vitality on the part of our people. 
The best speeches of the meeting were by A. M. 
Poindexter and Curry^ both of them being very power- 
ful. I didn't say a word during convention, nor make 
a motion. I get more and more diffident every year. 



96 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

I teaed one evening with Sheldon at his hotel. 
He rather urged me to write for the Galaxy." 

In the summer of 1868 Mr. Taylor made a trip to New 
England in the interests of Hollins Institute. He wrote 
concerning this trip: 

"I found Bellingham a small, quiet village made up 
mostly of farmers owning from ten to twelve acres in the 
neighborhood. ... I preached at 10.30 and 5.30. 
I made a brief statement to the congregation 
about Hollins Institute, and Mr. Massey followed, warm- 
ly commending it; whereupon an elderly man rose and, 
interrupting him, inquired whether it admitted colored 

girls. Mr. M evaded the question. I rose and 

answered it. I was informed that it was the habit of this 
man thus to rise and ask questions, and that in this in- 
stance he did not represent the public feeling. 
Called at Cousin Elisha Appleton's. . . . His wife, a 
lovely Christian woman, as cordial and graceful in her 
cordiality as our best Virginia ladies. William H. Apple- 
ton, aged twenty-six, graduate of Harvard, just complet- 
ing his law studies, and appointed Tutor of Greek at Har- 
vard for next session — a very fine fellow. The other son, 
graduate of Brown and Assistant Professor Chemistry 
there, absent. ... In the main I declined, while 
North, to answer challenges, thinking discussion useless 
and dangerous. But on this occasion we had a very 
spirited but entirely friendly talk, and I think I gave 
them some new views. . . . Being a poor man I 
deemed that economy demanded I should go to Newport, 
which I did, and bathed in the surf in a pouring rain. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 97 

The sensations and emotions among the most delightful 
I ever experienced. I sang and danced and jumped and 
hallooed and laughed. I could not help it." 

The next letter, addressed to his brother Charles, tells 
of a very different kind of trip from the one just described : 

"... Monday a. m v on one of my farm horses, 
I started for Deerfield. I had anticipated your company 
on that ride with peculiar interest. I had along two 
books which I proposed we should discuss en route and at 

D , 'Bishop Meade's Life' and I. Taylor's 'Physical 

Theory of Another Life.' The former I am disappointed 
in. What relates to him personally is fresh and pleasant, 
but so much about the trial of Onderdonk, etc., disgusted, 
or at least wearied, me. The latter I have long wanted to 
see and am now perusing with interest. H. Hatcher was 
to have been at Deerfield, and I went, as much as any- 
thing to have a good time; but he failed to attend, so I 
had at once to take the laboring oar, which was the more 
pleasant, as that is a neighborhood where I am 'much 
thoughted of.' I preached five times ; four persons were 
baptized ... I came home to-day, riding nearly all 
the time in the rain." 

On January 2nd, 1869, he writes to his brother Charles : 
"... We ought to speak — I mean intimate 
friends — more frequently on their religious experiences, 
and when they do so it should be simply and naturally, as 
on other themes. ... I have just put into clear 
shape a difficulty I have often found in writing such a 
letter as this. I have nothing but trifles, and these so 
numerous that it is hard either to discriminate or to write 



98 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

them all. So I frequently in disgust don't write at all, 
or, if I do, only in the baldest style. Would you be in- 
terested in hearing that the shirt I was to put on to-morrow 
was put on the stove and burned to death, and that there- 
upon I held my peace ; that our cook has left, and for 
two days Sue has officiated, George and I doing chores ; 
that a beggar came here night before last purporting to 
have been baptized by Spurgeon, and telling me a horrible 
story of his misfortunes, and that I gave him a supper 
and then, taking him down town, paid my last half dollar 
for his lodging; that I have finished 'R. B.,' and am 
merely putting on some finishing touches (a bull!) — via, 
can't you, without trouble, send me a few selected prose 
or poetical mottoes, to put at the beginnings of the 
chapters ? — that my text to-morrow is 'the joy of the Lord 

is your strength' ; that by loss of , , etc., my 

salary is not likely to be over $500 this year! that I 
have been very good for nothing this week? — that we 
have begun to have only two meals per diem ? No, I am 
sure these things cannot interest you, so I close. " 

When Mr. Taylor's father was chaplain at the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, the term of service was only one year. 
Now it had for some time been two. Mr. Taylor's name 
having been mentioned in connection with the place, he 
wrote as follows to his brother Charles, then a student 
at the University: 

"I have shrunk from replying to your inquiry touch- 
ing my acceptance of the chaplaincy. Hence my delay. 

"While I could not be an applicant — much less a com- 
petitor — for the position, I should certainly be gratified 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 99 

to have the appointment conferred on me. Moreover, 
while I think it would be discourteous to my church for 
me to say absolutely, in advance, that I would accept the 
office, if it were tendered me ; and while, indeed, I could 
hardly decide positively such a question, unless it were 
fairly before me, for decision ; yet, on the other hand, my 
estimate of the position, as offering opportunities of use- 
fulness and of personal improvement, is such that I cer- 
tainly feel as much inclined to it as one ought to feel to 
any place which has not been offered him. This I say 
very frankly; and add my opinion, that were I cordially 
invited to be chaplain of the University, and were there 
no obstacles in the way of which I am now ignorant, the 
attractions which I have mentioned would even induce 
me to sever a pleasant pastoral connection of twelve years' 
standing, and assume duties, which, though pleasant, yet 
seem to me peculiarly responsible, and from which I 
shrink with unaffected diffidence." 

The following letter, dated February 15th, 1869, and 
addressed to his brother Charles, refers to Rev. Cornelius 
Tyree, a noted Virginia pastor evangelist at that time : 

" . . The truth is our meeting has absorbed all 

my time and thoughts for a fortnight. . . . We have 

had preaching twice daily. Brother T preached 

well to large and attentive congregations. . . . He is 
quite a study. With by no means broad mind, or great 
originality, he has, by making preaching a specialty 
(which every preacher should do), become a very good ser- 
monizer. To this is added great earnestness of spirit and 
manner. He made a fine impression here ; and Dr. Sears, 



100 LIFE AND LETTERS OE 

who heard two or three of his best sermons, liked him very 

much. . . . Brother T stayed at our house and 

was very little trouble, and on the whole a pleasant and 
profitable companion. ... At night we had the 
largest crowd I have ever seen here. I had considerable 
liberty — preaching very colloquially, with little gesture. 
Of the latter I am trying to use less and less. My earlier 
performances, in this regard, must have been very ridicu- 
lous — as are some of them now. . . . We have had 
one or two rather remarkable instances of Divine grace — 
the reclaiming of a very wicked man ; the subduing of a 
proud girl, who a few days before declared nothing on 
earth would induce her to be immersed. . . . Elder 

T is very delicate and considerate in his treatment 

of a pastor, and I don't think my hands have been 
weakened by the meeting, though the people were wonder- 
fully carried away." 

The next letter refers to his election to the chaplaincy 
of the University. Dr. Socrates Maupin was at that time 
the chairman of the faculty, and Dr. James L. Cabell 
the distinguished professor of physiology and surgery. 
He is writing to his brother Charles : 

"I received a very kind (official) letter from Dr. 
Maupin, and one equally kind from Dr. Cabell. I have 
just replied to each, to the effect that I will consider and 
decide without unnecessary delay. The fact is that while 
I have a feeling that I will go, I must consider and pray 
before reaching a formal, final conclusion. . . . You 
feel a natural pleasure at the appointment; but you can 
hardly realize the pain I suffer in even the thought of 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 101 

leaving here, specially since the last meeting, and its 
precious results. . . . Pray for me. I feel almost 
overwhelmed with a sense of unworthiness, weakness and 
responsibility, and the delicacy of my position." 

Before the following letter was written, which by the 
way is illustrated, as his letters were now and then, with 
several little thumb-nail pen sketches, he had accepted the 
University chaplaincy. This letter also is to his brother 
Charles : 

" . . . I have done very little this week. Have 
been very unwell — partly my own imprudence ; and I have 
this day resolved, in the fear of God, to be more careful 
in obeying all the laws of health. . . . To-day I 
have attended (unofficially) two funerals from Presby- 
terian Church, and gone to grave both times. One, the 
funeral of Mrs. McClung, aged eighty-eight, one of my 
first friends in Staunton, sister of old Dr. Archibald 
Alexander, whom she much resembled. Sue has sore 
throat, from walking in the March wind, which is always 
peculiarly severe on her. . . . George has been for 
some time very anxious to be baptized. I have thought 
some delay judicious, but I trust he is a child of Jesus, 
and I don't mean to refuse permission to him to follow 
the Saviour. 'Roger Bernard' was promptly accepted by 
the A. B. P. S., and paid for, though it will not be issued 
for some time. ... I somewhat expect to be off on 
third Sunday, preaching and baptizing at Craigsville." 

The origin of "Roger Bernard" is interesting. Robert 
S. Prichard, a nephew of Mr. Taylor, while engaged in 
running the blockade between the United States and the 



102 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

West Indies, had some very thrilling adventures. He 
wrote out the story of these adventures, but was unable to 
secure its purchase and publication. Whereupon Mr. 
Taylor used the story, and wrote "Roger Bernard," which 
was sold for $175.00, the nephew receiving a liberal pro- 
portion of this amount. In all, up to this time his "un- 
pretending volumes," as Mr. Taylor called them, had 
brought in about $1,000. The next letter refers to another 
book, which he was working on in competition for a prize 
offered by the American Baptist Publication Society. 
This book, "Walter Ennis," while it did not win the prize, 
was a most interesting and inspiring story of the early 
struggles of Virginia Baptists for religious liberty. He 
writes to his brother : 

" . . . I am somewhat troubled in thinking of 
my preaching at the University. To use MS. will be to 
sacrifice power as well as to involve a deal of drudgery 
in writing. Yet, on the other hand, I tremble at venturing 
before such an audience trusting to the inspiration of the 
moment for my words and sentences. . . . Now I 
propose that you and I write jointly for at least two of 
these prizes, dividing equally the proceeds. I am sure we 
can get one or two of them. I will go on now and do 
what I can reading and writing. You do what you can 
thinking and plotting, and in July you can come over here 
and I will put the thing right through. I have finished 
Campbell and am now on Rives' 'Madison' and 'Semple.' : 

The next letter, to "Dear Charles," is dated March 
19th, 1869: 

. . John William Jones spent yesterday and 



u 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 103 

last night with us, and Elder P. C. Hoge took tea with 
us. We all had a pleasant evening. Jones had designed 
to deliver a pay lecture on 'Religion in the Army of 
Northern Virginia' for the benefit of his church. 
He expects to deliver it in Richmond and elsewhere. 
. Many of the people are waking up more and 
more about my leaving, and would guarantee a good 
salary promptly paid would I now consent to stay. This 
is both pleasant and painful. Of course the die is cast, 
nor do I know that I would have it otherwise. But it is 
a characteristic of this life that every gain is bought by 
a loss. ... I find it difficult, if not impossible, to 
do what you suggest, i. e., prepare sermons now to use at 
the University. I must just go on preparing and preach- 
ing as usual. Then I will use at the University what- 
ever I have that will do, but working it up to suit the 
time, etc." 

Lizzie Hume, referred to in the next letter, was the wife 
of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Hume, Sr., of Portsmouth, and 
Mrs. Taylor's sister. She was famous for her beauty and 
charm, and her piety was of no less high degree. Her ill- 
ness was a shadow on the Staunton home for many months. 
This letter, dated March 24th, 1869, is to "Dear Charlie" : 

" We greatly fear from letters to-night that 

Lizzie Hume, who has been long sick, will not recover. 
In one aspect, very sad, but she is a bright Christian and 
heaven is better than earth." 

During the following summer Mrs. Hume died at her 
home in Portsmouth, her sister, Mrs. Taylor, being with 
her to the end. Then in a very brief time little Carter 



104 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Braxton, Mrs. Taylor's infant child, also passed away in 
Portsmouth, and was buried in beautiful Hollywood, Rich- 
mond, beside his little sister, who had been born and who 
died in the dark days of the war. 

The same summer Mr. Taylor made a trip to the 
"'Eastern Shore," as that district of Virginia lying between 
the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean is called, 
where he attended a district association, went fishing and 
visited with romantic pleasure the birthplace of his wife. 
The letter about this trip is dated August 19th, 1869 : 

" . . . We left the steamer at Cheriton, vulgarly 
called Cherrystone — but it is an Indian name, as are most 
of the names on the Eastern Shore. We were met by 
brethren and taken to the home of Brother Wilkins. They 

gave me a specially cordial reception, Mrs. W having 

once been an inmate of Susan's father's family. She 
reminisced of her saving Sue from drowning, when the 
latter, a little child, fell into the water which came up 
to the garden wall. I sat down to a good dinner, and 
was soon regaling myself on a gosling, which I soon found 
to be as much an institution on 'the shore,' as even fish 
and other water gentry. . . . The next day the old 
man and I, with a negro and John More — the typical form 
of the race of fisherman — went out and spent the a. m. 
fishing, near Cobb's Island. We got a couple of bushel 
baskets full. I had the pleasure of hauling up several 
as long as my arm. It was quite exciting. ... I 
was sick all the time, which impaired, though it did not 
destroy, my enjoyment. At first, a general cold, making 
me stupid. It then attacked my speaking organs, and I 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 105 

became very hoarse. Under these circumstances I spoke 
on missions, and almost totally lost my voice ; nor have I 
since regained it, or indeed gotten decidedly better. This 
was, and is, a sore trial, as preaching or much talking, 
even in the private circle, was out of the question. A 
great many inquiries were made for you by parties who 
still affectionately remember you. This is not strange ; 
but it did seem a little so to be grasped by the hand and 
asked why I had so long delayed my return to the shore. 
In vain my protestations that this was my first visit there 
unless in a preexistent state. It would not avail. The 
people were not to be fooled that way, and they would 
remind me of the meeting at Red Bank, etc., and when 
I would utter the talismanic words 'my brother,' a curious 
expression would creep over their features. I am sure 
had you murdered anybody I must have swung for it. 
The last night I spent on the Eastern Shore 
was at the home of old Mr. Nottingham. On our way to 
take the boat, he took me to the ruins of the fine old 
mansion where Sue was born, and which belonged to her 
father. I gazed upon it and walked over it with deep 
and romantic interest/' 

In a letter to one of the family, September 16th, 1869, 
he writes : 

" . . . I ran over to the University yesterday, and 
was gratified at my reception by the professors, and at 
my expected home. If we can have health and the Lord's 
comforting presence, we shall be very happy there." 

The move to the University was made towards the end 
of September, 1869. Parting with the good people of 



106 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Staunton and the Staunton Church was painful, and it 
was with deep sorrow that the church saw their dear 
pastor leave. The reception at the University was most 
cordial. At that time, among the members of the faculty, 
were John B. Minor, John Staige Davis, George Fred- 
erick Holmes, M. Scheie de Vere, Francis H. Smith, 
Charles S. Venable, Basil L. Gildersleeve, William H. 
McGuffey, James L. Cabell, William E. Peters, and John 
S. Mallet, and the faculty and University was not too large 
to be in some ways like a large family. It was a most 
delightful place to live, and from the very first Mr. and 
Mrs. Taylor most thoroughly enjoyed the life in their 
new home. They were located in "the parsonage," on 
the edge of the University grounds. At that time the 
present chapel had not been built, nor the splendid Madi- 
son Hall. Religious services were held in the chapel 
east of the Rotunda, while the only quarters the 
Y. M. C. A. had was a small room on East Lawn, a 
lecture room being used for their Sunday afternoon serv- 
ices. During the first year at the University Mr. Taylor's 
brother Charles, and Robert S. Prichard, a step-son of 
his sister Jane, both students, were members of the par- 
sonage household. 

In speaking of his going to the University of Virginia, 
and events just before this move, Mr. Taylor, in his 
memorial sermon, in Staunton, said: 

"It was hardly to be expected that the perfect peace of 
church and pastor should not one day be threatened and 
partly interrupted. A trouble, mercifully neither exten- 
sive nor prolonged, came at last in this way: Our congre- 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 107 

gation of colored brethren, besides occupying a gallery at 
the morning and night services, had a meeting of their 
own every Sunday afternoon in the lecture room, attended 
by me on the two Sundays of the month when I did not 
have an appointment at one of the State institutions here. 
It was an equal pleasure to preach to our colored congre- 
gation, hear their characteristic exhortations, and join in 
their tuneful songs. The two leaders — James Payne and 
an older brother — were men respected in the community 
and of undoubted piety. A new-comer, who joined this 
church after the close of the war, proposed in a small 
church meeting that the colored brethren be required to 
pay rent for the use of the lecture room or go elsewhere, 
and both then and afterwards the proposal was urged with 
appeals to race and class prejudice. This I opposed with 
all my might, and thenceforth I had reason to know that 
I had an adversary in the church. The colored brethren, 
who probably never heard of what had passed, were only 
too willing to leave us, which they promptly did, and our 
church had another daughter. On my part there was the 
greatest need of self-control and patience, and by God's 
mercy there was no rupture, no rift within the lute to 
make the music mute. But it was a time of great trial 
to me, and of great suffering and anxiety, and when in 
1869 I was called to the chaplaincy of my Alma Mater, 
the University of Virginia, it was a relief, especially as 
I left a united and devoted church, who felt that the honor 
offered their pastor was in some sense their own. 

"This was really my first invitation to another field. 
More than once I had been wanted elsewhere, but in- 



108 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

fluential brethren said: 'Oh, do not call him; he is in his 
proper place, and ought not to leave Staunton/ This 
was wrong on their part, though well meant and true as to 
fact. Dr. James W. Alexander well said: 'A call should 
never be crushed in the egg. It is a tribute and an en- 
couragement to a minister; and it may help him where 
he is for the people to know he is wanted elsewhere/ Dr. 
Robert Ryland used to say that in his long career in Rich- 
mond he had never received a call to another field. The 
reason in his case was patent : he could not be spared from 
the college and the great work in the African Church. 
After the war the colored people came into politics in our 
Southland. I was once at the courthouse when whites 
and blacks addressed the mixed crowd. Ah, what is that 
I hear ! Two of the colored deacons of our church were 
speaking, and their speeches gave me a pleasant surprise. 
There was no bitterness in their hearts or on their lips. 
Their words were those of respect and kindness. They 
had no complaints to make as to the past. As to their 
religious privileges they said that they and others had had 
all that could be desired in our church, and had been 
lovingly cared for by its pastor. Brethren, those words 
were music in my ears and a solace to my heart. 

"Brother William Harrison Williams succeeded to the 
pastorate of this church. He was a fellow-townsman of 
mine, citizen of no mean city, a graduate of Richmond 
College and of the Seminary, and had served the Fred- 
ericksburg Church and the First Church in Charleston, 
S. C. Gifted and trained both as preacher and pastor, 
he did here, with the aid of his excellent wife, a good 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAX TAYLOR, D. D. 109 

work, the Sunday school specially increasing in numbers 
and efficiency and the gifts of new brethren being brought 
into exercise. A career of usefulness was before him in 
this field, where he might have grown, as he did else- 
where, in grace, in power, and in noble service even to 
the end. But in this almost perfectly pacific church he 
had trouble, and chiefly through the brother already 
referred to, who caused it elsewhere, both before and 
after his relation with this church ; nor did a protracted 
meeting held by the noted evangelist, Mr. Earle, seem to 
bring peace. I almost thought the contrary, although 
there was a gain in the membership." 

The following letter is written from the University, 
under date of September 26th, 1869 : 

"Yesterday, though half sick from sleeplessness, cold 
and morphine, I ' diked' and went to Charlottesville on 
cars to attend to some business. ... Called on Drs. 
Maupin and McGuffey, and chatted a few moments with 
Professors Smith, Venable, Mallet, Holmes and Minor. 
I had purposed going to hear Long to-day . . . but 
it has been a close, rainy day, and the air, though warm, 
very damp. So I have kept very close. Susan thinks 
it a good thing I could not go out. I read the Epistle of 
St. James in Greek, George accompanying me with King 
James, who was by no means a saint. . . . Aunt 
Aire [the colored cook] came to-day, and we have a load 
of wood, so that things are fairly going; though not so 
fairly as when I get my cow and some butter. I say 
with the Frenchman, 'A butterless world is no world for 
me.' ... I do hope soon to get better. For two 



110 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

or three days have found it pleasant to lie down every 
moment I was not going about." 

Thus the life at the University began. The circle at 
the parsonage formed a delightful partie carree, what with 
study, books, conversation and work, very resourceful, yet 
entering thoroughly into the social and intellectual life of 
the college and of Charlottesville. Mr. Taylor did, 
probably, during his University life, the best preaching 
of his life, though he continued to suffer much from weak- 
ness and sickness. 

In the summer of 1870 Mr. Taylor and his brother 
Charles decided rather suddenly to take a trip to Europe. 
In a financial way it was not an opportune time for Mr. 
Taylor to take such a trip, but he did not know when 
again he might have such a vacation, and then his thirst 
for knowledge, and love of adventure, no less perhaps 
than a hope for renewed physical vigor by a complete 
change of scene, helped towards the decision which was 
reached. When, however, the time came for Mr. Taylor 
to leave the University to meet his brother in New York, 
he was sick, quite sick. His wonderful spirit won the 
day. He started with pillows, fearing that he might have 
to turn back at New York. As was the case so very often 
in later years, the travel on the train helped him; he 
did not turn back at New York. J. C. Williams, to whom 
he refers, was his cousin, a prominent broker in Richmond 
and treasurer of the Foreign Mission Board of the 
Southern Baptist Convention. He wrote: 

"Dear Charlie — ... I now hope to get off to- 
night, and that you will meet me at Gordonsville, as I 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 1 1 1 

will hardly be able to take the journey to New York alone. 
In case I go, I will telegraph you, and this is only to give 
more definite information. Tn case of our missing each 
other, rendezvous at Sheldon's. If you can't come to-night 
you can contrive a note to meet me at Gordonsville. 
Please ascertain if I can get $300 or $400 from J. C. 
Williams on same terms. I haven't yet made my final 
arrangements on the subject, though will hear from F. W. 
to-day, if he is at home, and think, too, I can certainly 
get it in Charlottesville. I have been flat on my back and 
able to attend to nothing." 

These lines will show both the suddenness with which 
this trip was undertaken and the indomitable spirit which 
did not give up the trip when less than twenty-four hours 
before starting time he was sick and without the necessary 
money. He and his brother sailed on the "City of 
Brooklyn," of the Inman Line. Mr. Taylor proved a 
most excellent sailor and keenly enjoyed the motion of the 
vessel, the sea air and scenes. He wrote long letters 
home, enjoyed his Bible reading and preached perhaps 
more than once to the steerage people, besides having much 
religious conversation with individuals. From the "City 
of Brooklyn," Atlantic Ocean, July 14th, 1870, he wrote 
to his wife: 

" How you would laugh could you see me! 

I am on the upper, fore-deck, tucked away in the top of 
a ventilator, which just affords room for me and my ink- 
stand and is very comfortable, except that my legs are 
dangling. . . . But my hand I must not raise from 
the sheet or away it would go to demoralize the porpoises 



112 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

with my wit, and poor Sue would be that much the loser. 
In fifteen minutes after we started I was re- 
minded of the dangers, of the poor sailors at least, by see- 
ing one fall perhaps forty or fifty feet from the yardann to 
the deck. He broke his arm and was otherwise terriblv 
mangled. The only wonder was that he was not killed." 

They landed at Queenstown, spent a day visiting the 
Lakes of Killarney, and then, hurrying on, reached Lon- 
don late Saturday night. The first thing Mr. Taylor did 
in London was to find his way to Spurgeon's Tabernacle, 
and the first words he heard Spurgeon speak, in his open- 
ing prayer, ran somewhat thus : a O Lord, we have been 
tossed about all the week on the ocean of care and worry ; 
may we this day rest in Thee !" 

Their plan, when leaving home, was to visit Germany. 
The first news, however, upon landing was that the Franco- 
Prussian War had broken out. After some sight-seeing in 
England they set out for the continent, substituting France 
and Italy for Germany. They were in Paris at a most 
exciting time and had several thrilling adventures. One 
day Mr. Taylor was on the top of an omnibus, when the 
angry crowd came down the boulevard with a German 
whom they had caught. The traffic on the street stood 
still. The people on the omnibuses stood up and shouted. 
Mr. Taylor was afraid to sit still, or to stand up and 
shout. His light complexion and reddish beard, and his 
inability to speak French, increased his danger. As soon 
and as quickly as he could he slipped down from the top 
of the 'bus. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 113 

From Berne, August 8th, 1870, he wrote to his wife : 
"My last was a hurried note written at my banker's in 
Paris. ... I was quite heartsick at getting no letter 
and at the idea of starting on a three weeks' tour during 
which I could not possibly hear from you. . . . As I 
feared, our delay prevented our leaving and spending the 
night at Fontainebleau. . . . We decided, however, 
to move to a hotel near our station, as the train left early. 
This we did against the protest of host, who insisted there 
were no hotels in that locality. At this I laughed in my 
'sleeve. . . . He also insisted on calling a cab for us, 
saying we could not go on a 'bus with our luggage. 
Here again I knew better, and we soon were for 
three or four sous each safely deposited at our destination. 
Rejecting larger and more showy houses, we put up at a 
small but neat house kept by a Swiss. It bore, however, the 
lofty name Hotel de 1' Universe. . . . Early the next 
morning we were up and got a bowl of delicious coffee, then 
repaired to the depot, a few steps off, and were soon 
rapidly gliding through an interesting country. All the 
time my eyes were drinking in the new and beautiful and 
ever diversified scenery. We breakfasted and dined on 
the train from bread and cheese and sardines, supple- 
mented by fruit, which is abundant and cheap. Nearly 
all the way we had an entire compartment to ourselves. 
A little after dark we broke our journey, having 
travelled over 300 miles, at Pontarlier, the frontier town 
between France and Switzerland. Here our passports 
were examined and reexamined by the French officials. 
Tt was quite funny. After examining them at the station, 



114 LIKE AND LETTERS OE 

one of them followed us to the hotel and repeated the 
process. As he did so I pointed to the spread eagle on 
mine and in pantomime told him I was under its wings 
and he dare not touch me ; whereat he was convulsed, and 
thinks I to myself, the eagle has pecked me long enough, 
she must protect me now. . . . Our recollections of 
Pontarlier are not flattering. We had laid over there in 
order to see the next few miles by daylight. Richly were 
we repaid. ... At four o'clock we took the train 
and came to this place, making this our stopping place for 
Sunday. ... I spent a peaceful, happy and I trust 
profitable Sabbath. We went to the cathedral, and to our 
joy found it Protestant; the singing, to the fine organ, 
congregational and devout; the preacher earnest, though 
we could not tell what he said. Then a stroll. Then in 
my pleasant room a season of religious sendee. Then 
heard a sermon at the English service ; another stroll ; 
dinner, table d'hote, at five', another stroll and reading- 
till bedtime. . . . The air is thick with the rumors 
of the war, and people excited." 

On August 12th, 1870, he wrote to his wife, describing 
among other things his trip across the Alps : 

" Yesterday was a day long to be remembered 

by me. We rose at four and were on the diligence till ten 
at night ; much of the time on top, nothing to obstruct 
our view of the grand and lovely scenery. Up, up we 
went, winding round and round, now on galleries built 
out from the mountain side, now over stone bridges, now 
through tunnels cut through the solid rock, till, after six 
hours' hard climbing, the summit was reached, vegetation 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 115 

and the goats and cattle being left below, while near us, 
but still towering above, was the snow and ice which never 
melt or disappear. The cold became quite intense, but I 
managed with my good wrappings to keep comfortable. 
We were drawn most of the time by seven horses. There 
are no reins to the leaders, they being driven by the voice 
and a long whip. Such cracking of the whip I never 
heard. It was like pistol cracks and unintermitting. 
Every few miles was a 'Refuge' and at shorter intervals 
were crucifixes and figures, large or smaller, of Christ on 
the cross. Indeed these had been quite numerous after 
we passed St. Maurice, the line between Protestant and 
Catholic Switzerland." 

The rest of this drive, when he had his first view of 
Italy, is thus described by Dr. Taylor in his "Italy and 
the Italians" : 

"It was in the summer of 1870 that I first saw Italy. 
I was comparatively ignorant of her history and treasures, 
but with a mind open to impressions. My entrance was 
over the Simplon on the top of a diligence, and on those 
Alpine heights, despite abundant wraps, I suffered from 
the intense cold : but one after another of these was thrown 
off as we swiftly descended, and all were thrown off when 
Italy was reached, although 'the shades of night were 
falling fast/ Into the court of a spreading inn we sudden- 
ly dashed, and while the horses were changed, I sallied 
forth to use in the purchase of fruit the few Italian words 
acquired during the day. I may say in passing that I was 
only a summer tourist and had no more idea of spending 
a quarter of a century in Italy than I now have of a flight 



116 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

to the moon. With a fresh team we were soon bowling 
over a road as smooth and level as a floor to the rhythmical 
beat of the horses' hoofs and the music of their bells. 
On one side lay the island-studded Lake Maggiore and 
on the other rose vine-clad terraces crowned with many 
a villa, while the moon, riding high in the heavens, shed 
a mystical glory on the novel and lovely scene; I seemed 
to be in fairyland, and the feeling was only increased 
when a few hours later I was supping at Arona in an 
arbor illuminated by the moon and by Chinese lanterns 
Imng amid the foliage of the trees." 

The travellers went as far south as Rome and then 
turned their faces towards England and home. From 
Paris Mr. Taylor wrote to his wife on August 28th, from 
the little Hotel de Y Universe*. 

" . . Our heart was made glad by receiving 

your letter of July 31st. . . . After devouring our 

letters C and I parted. . . . About 10.30 at 

night I reached the Place de la Bastille, near which is 
this hotel, and struck out boldly for it. But, lo and 
behold! I could not find it. I spent an hour in looking 
for it and then had to give it up, though I knew I must 
be within a quarter of a mile of it. I took an omnibus 
and went three miles or so to an entirely different part 
of the city to our former hotel, and spent the night. The 
next morning as I was sitting down to breakfast in walked 
Charlie, who, as I had expected, had felt pretty uneasy 
about me, thinking of La Morgue, arrests, etc." 

The next day (August 29th, 1870), in a letter to his 
sister, Mrs. Fannie Ficklin, he wrote: 



EEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 11 



- 



" . Paris is in great excitement. Many think 

the Prussians will soon be here. All strangers are hurry- 
ing off, fearing the railroads will be cut, even if the 
Prussians do not get here. We see a great many people 
going with furniture, etc., evidently gotten up in haste. 
It reminds me so much of Confederate times." 

Before sailing Mr. Taylor, leaving his brother, made a 
little journey to Nottingham, where he found a number 
of his kin people, and to the village of Barton-on-Humber, 
his father's birthplace. Two brief letters tell something 
of this trip : 

"Nottingham, Tuesday, 6.30 p. m. — Dear Charles : I 
had a pleasant trip here ; put up at a good hotel and kept 
close during the rain last evening. This morning sallied 
forth and, by the blessing of God, in answer to prayer, 
found, after diligent search, all our relations. I dined 
and shall spend to-night at the house of father's first 
cousin, George Gascoyne Taylor. I go to-morrow a. m v 
eight o'clock, to Barton. Shall probably hear from you 
before I leave here, as I understand the Liverpool mail 
is open at seven a. m. If necessary and possible, I shall 
leave Barton to-morrow evening. I have been tramping^ 
about in the wet and am not well, but hope, with pru- 
dence, by the Divine mercy, to rejoin you in good health. 
I trust you have been favored and guided in your decisions 

and arrangements. ... Be very careful in L . 

It is said to be a bad place. ... I write this on the 
Bible of our great-grandfather, George Taylor. Your 
loving brother, G . Particulars when we meet. Be 



118 LIFE AND LETTEBS OK 

economical. I will not have over four or five 1 pounds 
when I reach L ." 

The next day he wrote as follows : 

" 'Sheaf and Stack/ Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire, 
September 7th, 7 p. m., 1870. — Dear Charlie: Your kind 
and eminently satisfactory letter was received by me this 
morning as I proceeded to the station. I left Nottingham 
at eight, accompanied by my cousin. We stayed three 
hours at Lincoln, visiting the magnificent cathedral, 
attending choral service, walking by ihv castle and over 
the city and . . . talking, . . . mainly of Aus- 
tralia, where he has been for years. We then came hither, 
arriving about four o'clock. He showed me the grave of 
our great-aunt and great-grandmother and the house where 
our great-grandparents lived and where probably father 
was born ; also the house where grandfather served his 
time and worked at his trade. We then got a good dinner 
and he left. It has been raining heavily since, keeping 
me indoors. I have been suffering with cold. 
I am not uneasy, but feel the need of great prudence. I 
have on now a pair of my host's slippers. I am stopping 
at the Wheat Stack — a wee inn, but very comfortable and 
homelike. I will have a deal to tell you when we meet, 
as you will me. . . . I go to Hull to-morrow, then 
to some towns — don't know yet which. . . . Then 

in pencil these words are added: "September 8th, 8.30 
a. m. — I write from the grave of our great-grandmother, 
in nearly the oldest churchyard in England. I am well ; 
have your second letter. My plan now is to spend the 
night at Sheffield, spend a few hours in Manchester to- 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, I). 1). 119 

morrow and reach L either to-morrow night or Sat- 
urday a. m. God bless you. . . . Am much pleased 
with your arrangements." 

During Mr. Taylor's absence his wife had with her 
her sisters Mrs. Ficklin and Mrs. Slaughter, and their 
children. A trip to Europe then being a rarer event than 
it is to-day, no wonder that Mr. Taylor's return was a 
great occasion and that the children were delighted be- 
yond words at the Sheffield knives, Paris trinkets and 
many interesting pictures which the traveller distributed 
with liberal hand. Better far, however, even in the opin- 
ion of the children, were the accounts of all the fine things 
he had seen beyond the sea. 

Soon the session began, and on October 13th, 1870, Mr. 
Taylor wrote to his brother Charles : 

"... I have spent this a. m. mostly walking up 
the O. and A. railroad, getting up a sermon on Ps. xxv : 7 
for Sunday night. Have just finished a letter to J. B. T. 
Jr. ; he is coming up here with his little cripple boy, for 

Dr. C to operate on. . . . The death of General 

Lee deeply affects me. His character is a reproof and 1 
stand awed and subdued. I mean to preach (probably 
from II Sam. in : 38) in reference to the event. I am 
much more free from pain and annoyance than when I 
wrote, and have besides put myself regularly under Dr. 
D . Morning prayers finely attended." 

The next letter is headed "Carissime Frater," under 
date of October 24th: 

" . . . Mrs. Slaughter left this a. m. Her 
presence has been like sunlight — like an angel's visit. 



120 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

She combines such matronly dignity with youthful 
vivacity — is so pious, amiable, sympathetic, appreciative. 
Her children, too, are very interesting. . . . To-day 
I was invited to address the Methodist Sunday school at 
some early day, and promised to do so." 

In the next letter the Barksdale alluded to is now Judge 
W. R. Barksdale, of Halifax County, Virginia. It bears 
date of November 27th: 

"Dear Charles — . . . You can't imagine how 
quietly we are living, we four, with but one servant, and 
just now George is in Richmond. Sue or I make two 
fires every morning before breakfast. My old study is 
occupied by a man and his wife ; the former sawing my 
wood, which I have been doing. . . . While at Hali- 
fax I met Barksdale, who seemed as glad to see me as 
I was to see him. ... I am delighted to hear that 
he has taken a bold and decided position as a Christian 
and a Baptist; superintendent of the Sunday school, and 
in short becoming the man of the little Baptist interest 
there. C. Read is worth his weight in gold. 

The event of last week was a lecture before the 
Christian Association by Dr. Armstrong on 'Dis- 
coveries in the Great Pyramid.' He stayed with us, and 
was very agreeable. We breakfasted at Colonel Ven- 
able's. The lecture was a success. One hour and twenty 
minutes ex tempore and using a diagram with my (your) 
cane. ... I should be through my first round of 
visits and advanced in my studies and writing, but for 
constant interruption, mainly by sickness. I have lately 
had a serious throat trouble. Could not preach last 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 121 

Sunday ; had to get two Methodist brethren, one of whom 
preached nearly an hour and a half. For some days 
almost lost my voice and was invalid generally. To-day 
I have preached twice, but my throat is weak and no 
power in my voice. . . . Having been away and 
being so unwell, I sent George down to the stockholders' 
meeting." 

The next letter, addressed to his father and mother, 
refers to the birth of a son and to other matters in the 
life of the family. It is dated December 25th, 1870 : 

" . . . The baby (still nameless), is — I say it 
with gratitude, not pride — unusually well and good and 
quiet. . . . Almost each day some delicacy has come 
for Susan from our neighbors ; generally, too, in sufficient 
abundance to give us all a taste, if not a feast. 
The Yenables and Davises have sent the children very 
pretty presents. Mary has said again and again: 'Oh, I 
am so happy !' Eow, ordinarily when people stop to 
talk about their feelings, they are not so very intense, 
but in this case the mouth spoke out of the abundance of 
the heart. I omitted in my meteorological introduction 
to say that the cold has deprived us of gas and, we fear, 
frozen our apples. The last is a misfortune, as we have 
several barrels and well nigh live on them. . . . And 
now I will take another half sheet mainly for the sake 
of speaking of father's expected visit. I need not say it 
will not be in any sense an intrusion. On the contrary, 
it will be peculiarly pleasant, as well as perfectly con- 
venient, to have him, and we would not have him not 
come for anything. Susan had repeatedly spoken of his 



122 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

coming, and is delighted at the prospect, thinking she 
may even see more of him and enjoy his company more 
from being confined to her room." 

Mr. Taylor's brother Charles was now Professor of 
Latin at Wake Forest College, North Carolina. In a 
letter to him he says : 

" . . . Dr. A said while in prison he read the 

whole Bible through every twenty days. . . . The 
Publishing Society offers to pay me $250 for a book on 
England, bringing out religious and Baptist items. 
Susan is to me better and sweeter every day. I 
often tremble at the thought of losing her, but though we 
live in a world of death, it is not well morbidly to dwell 
on what may come. ... I am preaching almost 
entirely ex tempore, though trying to keep a record of 
what I say, so as to be able to reproduce it. But I can't 
look the people in their eyes. What shall I do?" 

On the first Sunday in each month many of the Univer- 
sity people go to Charlottesville, a mile away, to attend 
their several churches, and to celebrate the Lord's Supper ; 
this always made the chapel congregation smaller on these 
Sundays. On January 1st, 1871, Mr. Taylor, writing to 
his brother Charles, alludes to Rev. Dr. Moses D. Hoge, 
for more than half a century the pastor of the Second 
Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Va., and a most brilliant 
preacher : 

" . The Christmas has passed quietly. We 

thought of you. . , . George dined one day at Mr. 
J 's. . . . He also enjoyed the snow and ice. 



REV. GEORGE BOABDMAN TAVI.ol!, D. D. 123 

Even I did not disdain to get in a bobsled and be sent 
over the big pond, a la telegraph, by a fine skater. 
I preached this a. m. a new sermon, written out, from 
Matt, xx : 28. I did not expect any congregation, the 
day being so exquisite, and communion in town too; but 
we had eight professors and a sprinkling of students and 
others. To-night I preached from 'Go to, ye that say,' etc. 
— an old sermon revamped. The chapel unusually 
crowded, but the air was better than usual, and hence I 
am not so utterly used up as I am sometimes. ... I 
succeeded in inducing the proctor to get from Baltimore 
a ventilator for the chapel. I have just written to Dr. 
Hoge to come here and preach a week. . . . Pray 
for us. ... When you come you can see my fine 
boy. . . . Susan is, at this moment and much of her 
time, spending strength and feeling anxiety as only a 
mother ever does in this world. Pray for her and the 
child." 

Not uncommonly Mr. Taylor, acting upon a suggestion 
of his brother Charles, wrote a letter which went to his 
brother James, then pastor at Culpeper Court House, and 
next to his parents and sisters in Richmond, and finally to 
his brother Charles at Wake Forest, North Carolina. 
The following was such a "circular" letter. The A. E. D. 
alluded to is Rev. A. E. Dickinson, for many years editor 
of the Religious Herald. It bears date of January 30th, 
1871: 

"... After our glorious weather, we have been 
having some rather trying to delicate folks. . . . But 
George has enjoyed the sliding and it has made the 



124 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

students young again, to the great damage of split-bottoms. 
Last week I read Mansil's 'Limits of Religious 
Thought.' It is a noble book and did me good. 
I am reading for recreation ' Tales of the Border' — ten 
volumes — from library. ... I wish A. E. D. would 
come and give me a week's preaching, beginning on a 
Sabbath." 

The next letter, dated February 8th, is also to his 
brother Charles : 

" . . . I have been very good-for-nothing, suffer- 
ing with weakness, indigestion, etc., and Dr. D has 

prescribed ale for Sue and myself, and I have sent to 
Richmond for a cask. Yesterday morning Harrison 
Williams came and remained until to-day. . . . Last 
night he and I went to Dr. McGuffey's to attend a sort of 
theological club which meets there once a week. I en- 
joyed it very much and got some material for sermons, 
I think. I talked a good deal and the young men insisted 
I had added much to the occasion, and urged me to attend, 
which I think I will do. . . . The memory of my 
summer is a constant delight. I shall certainly go again, 
if the Lord opens the way." 

The next letter is of February 19th, eight pages of 
letter-size paper, and to "Dear Charles" : 

"... Coming from Halifax, I had a talk with 
Daniel Witt. He said if he were not a Christian then 
he did not think he ever would be. I have something 
of the same feeling. I am full of sin and weakness and 
blindness ; still if I have not looked to Jesus, I don't 
see how I ever can or shall. But what progress one might 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAX TAYLOR, D. D. 125 

make were he faithful and under the guidance of the Holy 
Spirit ! The idea has forcibly occurred to me this week, 
as if it were a brand-new thing, that the only way to 
resist temptation, even the grossest, is to be in a high 
spiritual state. We generally run the mill with too low 
a head of water. Yet we are straitened in ourselves, for 
we may draw from a fountain that is infinite and peren- 
nial. . . . Next Sunday John William Jones de- 
livers here his lecture on 'Religion in the Army of Northern 
Virginia.' . . . By the way, I have been intending 
to tell you that when I preached on 'Bring me up Samuel' 
I went to Dr. Cabell's to borrow a sermon of Dr. J. W. 
Alexander's on the same words. They had mislaid the 

printed copy, but Mrs. C had the original MS. and 

lent it to me. You can't think with what affectionate 
interest I regard it. No man that I ever saw came nearer 
to my heart than he. ... I believe Sue has never 
wavered (this for J. B. T. Jr., and mother) as to calling 
our boy James, but what else, has been the question. I 
think lately 'Spotswood' has been in the ascendency. 
Sue reminded me of Mr. Earle yesterday, say- 
ing each day was happier to her than any preceding. Our 
babe is a wellspring of joy in the house. We think as 
much of him as if he were not No. 7. By the way, did 
you see that exquisite little piece in the Watchman and 
Reflector on 'No. 10' ? I sent it to Professor Smith when 
his tenth came, but he impudently suggested to me that 
T keep a copy. I am so glad you have Dr. Poindexter 
with you. Next to father, he is more like a father to me 
than anybody in the world." 



120 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

The next letter is to his father, under date of February 
22nd: 

"I have been unanimously called to the pastorate of the 
Staunton Church. . . . They propose to pay $1,200 
salary and more, if more can be raised, besides the $100 
for preaching at the Institution. Such men as Peyton. 
the Hoges, Summerson, etc., are very enthusiastic. Hart 
also is represented to have spoken most warmly in favor 
of me and of my coming. . . . So it is also said that 
persons of other churches and of no church have expressed 
strong desire for my return, and some have subscribed, 
promising to pay the amount as long as I stay. Of course 
all this is very gratifying and I do feel thankful to Him 
who has brought it to pass. The action of the church was 
without any idea whatever as to what my decision might 
be. Mingled with the pleasure I naturally feel at such 
an expression from the people whom I served so long, is 
a painful sense of the grave responsibility involved in 
coming to a decision. The question is complicated by the 
fact that, while no action has yet been taken, I am posi- 
tively assured that if I will sanction, the Lexington 
Church will call me and that I will be appointed adjunct 
professor in Washington and Lee University, the church 
and college respectively assenting to my sustaining the 
double relation. In the absence of any other intimation 
of Providence, I suppose that to one or the other of these 
positions I might go. But which?" 

Referring to some articles on the trip to Europe by 
his brother Charles, in the Religious Herald, Mr. Taylor 
writes to him: 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 127 

" . Your minute description of that day at 

Killarney (which I couldn't have written to save my life) 
impresses me with the value of keeping a diary in travel- 
ling, which you were then doing and I was not, and also 
makes me realize what my state was. The first week 
after I landed seems a dark dream of physical pain, 
vague apprehension and utter depression, relieved with 
bright gleams from the novelty and beauty surrounding 
me and from your kind sympathy. If you ever failed 
at all it was only because one person never knows or can 
know precisely how another feels. I was conscious of 
trying your patience often by my unfortunate peculiarities 
which were intensified by physical weakness and pain. 
But I suppose it is always the case that the nearest and 
most loving friends need to bear with each other, and I 
believe we both have been and will ever be glad to do 
that. But of my trip as a whole my recollections are 
exquisitely pleasant. Some things even not perfectly 
agreeable at the time are now only bright and pleasant 
when remembered. I can truly say the memory of much 
that was seen and experienced is a perpetual joy, a never- 
failing solace and recreation. The best evidence of this 
is that I more than ever desire to go again and fully 
purpose it, if the way ever opens. . . . But if we 
don't travel much more here it is refreshing to think of 
a boundless universe and an eternity to gratify our love 
of adventure, motion, novelty, etc. I am convinced that 
we often make heaven too bald a thing, just as philosophy 
exalting God makes him almost a nonentity. ... I 



128 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

walk a great deal. My favorite walk is up the O. and A. 
railroad." 

In a letter on March 12th, 1871, he writes to his 
brother James : 

" . . Nothing but a sense of duty brought me 

home, but the result proved my conviction was right. I 
found a very ill student, whom I have been visiting twice 
daily. It was feared he would not live, and his father, 
mother and sisters have been with him. It is now hoped 
he will recover. I got several points for my sermon from 
his sick-bed. ... I have appointed prayer-meetings 
at 7.30 a. m v and urged the entire congregation to attend. 
I think I see some tokens for good, and humbly trust 
we are on the eve of a blessing. Pray for us. The morn- 
ing meeting I owe in part, possibly entirely, to you. Al- 
ways tell me what you think. . . . You have no idea 
how utterly weak and good-for-nothing I was a few weeks 
ago. Your gardening has quite stirred me up to begin. 
We have turnip salad daily, either from our garden or 
Dr. Davis's, and salsify in abundance from the former. 
These, with jole and nice corn beef, constitute the chief 
of our diet. We have not yet reached the luxury of fish. 
I should not omit that in my absence Sue received a 
present of $50 from Carter." 

The next letter, bearing date of March 17th, 1871, 
shows the esteem felt in Virginia by the white people 
for colored people, who were really worthy. Laura Camp- 
bell, referred to in this letter, was a colored woman, and 
a member of Mr. Taylor's church. Her husband was a 



EEV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 129 

barber in Staunton for years, and they were both greatly 
respected : 

"My dear Mother — . . . We have had preaching 
each night and a prayer-meeting at 7.30 a. m., both well 

attended by students and the families. Brother W 

has preached acceptably, and with considerable pathos. 
There are a few cases of avowed seriousness and 
many are thoughtful. . . . We all dined one day at 
Dr. Davis's. . . . Yesterday, summoned by telegraph, 
I went over to Staunton to preach the funeral of Laura 
Campbell. No one could be missed more by Sue and myself 
or be a greater loss to the church. The house was crowded, 
the lower part with colored, the galleries by white persons, 
including many of the most prominent citizens of the 
town. Six or eight gentlemen acted as pall-bearers. 
This morning, being rainy, ... I attended 
prayer-meeting alone. To my surprise and pleasure chapel 
was nearly full. The Smiths, Cabells, Davises, Minors, 
Gildersleeves, and Harrisons have been quite regular 
at these morning meetings, as well as other families. 
Professor Peters has kindly suspended his 7.30 to 8 exer- 
cises during our meeting, stating the reason, and Mr. 
Minor this morning postponed his examination half an 
hour, so as not to interfere with our meeting. 
Rev. Dr. C. H. Read, of Richmond, is expected here 
next week to preach before Y. M. C. Association, and 
will probably remain and labor, should the interest 
demand/' 

On March 25th, 1871, he wrote to his mother: 

. . . I to-day signified my acceptance of the 



130 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Staunton call. . . . During the day L was so urged 
to continue the meetings and preach myself that I decided 
it was my duty, and announced accordingly. 
Last evening the congregation seemed very solemn. 
This a. m. we had a charming prayer-meeting 
and well attended." 

In a letter to his brother Charles, on March 29th, 1871, 
Mr. Taylor refers to the series of meetings. Mr. Wilson, 
of whom he speaks, was the Rev. X. Wilson, the brilliant 
pastor of the Grace Street Baptist Church, Richmond, 
Va.: 

"Wilson stayed with me just a week. . . . He is 
a fine sermonizer, giving striking, yet natural, divisions 
with very fresh filling in. His delivery is in every respect 
excellent, and he has much pathos and unction. I should 
call him a born preacher. He made a very pleasing im- 
pression, but not powerful, except by one sermon, which 
was one of the most affecting I ever heard from any one, 
anywhere — on the Crucifixion. He says it is his best, and 
cost him weeks, if not months, of work. . . . Finally 
you will ask what are the results. I answer, I cannot tell. 
But I am sure Christians are greatly revived and stirred 
up, students and others, and I think that spiritual and 
active piety have been placed upon a higher and finer 
position. Several students are expecting to join the 
various churches." 

On April 9th, 1871, he writes again to his brother 
Charles : 

" . After writing my last I went on for two 

or three nights, preaching myself. . . . Two young 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 131 

men will be baptized, two or three join Methodists, one 
Presbyterian . . . and from fifteen to twenty will 
be confirmed Friday by Bishop Whittle, whom I have 
invited to preach here at the same time." 

On May 14th he writes to his father and mother : 

" . . The day is transcendently glorious. 

Dr. Davis sends us lettuce and dressing daily, and 

has this week sent sturgeon. He is too kind. How much 

we shall hate to leave this sweetest of places and this dear, 

dear people !" 

On May 21st he writes to his brother Charles and tells 
of preaching the funeral of a colored man who was much 
esteemed : 

" Do you remember Uncle James, who was 

always in his place at chapel \ He fell dead last Tuesday. 
He had expressed the wish I should preach his funeral, 
which I did Wednesday p. m., at the colored church (Dela- 
van). Two colored ministers participated in the services 
and Drs. Cabell and Minor were present, and a large 
crowd of colored persons. . . . Suffer a suggestion 
here. Prepare with care three or four funeral sermons, 
ready for occasion. It is well not to say much about the 
deceased, unless the case is remarkable, and if a pastor 
don't begin, it will not be expected. If it is his habit, 
he will sometimes be in an embarrassing position — a 
conflict between conscience and what is expected. It is 
a good plan, I have found, to write carefully what you 
propose to say of the party. Otherwise one sometimes 
says too much, or at least not just what he would choose. 
Finally, except when the deceased was such that any 



132 LLb'E AND LETTERS OF 

allusion to him is very instructive and stimulating, I 
prefer to begin with what is personal, and then preach 
my sermon as such. What think you ? ... At the 
grave the colored people sang two hymns, while the grave 
was deliberately filled up. I have never seen the whole 
thing more decently and solemnly and impressively done. 

Drs. C and M and Maupin, Gildersleeve, Peters 

and Smith and family went to the grave." 
On June 16 th 1871, he wrote to his father : 
" Since my return I have been the victim 

of dyspepsia, suffering great discomfort for hours after 
eating what seemed to me very innocent meals. I am 
now trying the strictest dieting as to quantity and quality. 
I have been reading Whateley's Memoirs, just out, two 
large volumes and mostly made up of his letters. Very 
interesting. ... I am sawing my own wood." 

During the summer of 1871 Mr. Taylor preached at 
Staunton, his family remaining at the University of 
Virginia until September, when the move to Staunton 
was made. He writes, from Staunton Julv 25th, to his 

7 n 7 

brother Charles: 

"I left University yesterday, having spent three pleasant 
days there, talking with the family, fondling my children, 
playing croquet, calling on Dr. Davis' family, seeing 
Long, J. A. B., etc. ... I came over on the freight. 
Being misinformed as to the time, I reached the depot 
after the train had started, and had barely time to jump 
on a flat loaded with lumber. At Ivy I was invited by 
the engineer to take a seat with him, which I did, and 
had a charming ride." 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 133 

From the University of Virginia he wrote, on August 
1st, 1871, to his mother: 

"Father seemed so unwell Saturday morning that he 
decided to get off at Staunton and stay with me, which 
I was very glad of. We were most kindly cared for at 
Miss Mary Bledsoe's. . . . Yesterday we came on 
together, Fannie being with us to Charlottesville. He 
had half purposed to keep on to Richmond, but I, feeling 
it very desirable he should see Dr. Davis again, succeeded 
in stopping him." 

He wrote to his mother about the move from the Uni- 
versity. He alludes to the Misses Ross, who kept for years 
at the University of Virginia a most popular boarding- 
house : 

" . . We expect to devote to-morrow to moving 

our goods to the car. After accomplishing this we shall 
go to the Misses Ross', where we have been kindly invited, 
and where we will be most kindly entertained. To-night 
we shall sleep on pallets, but I trust will sleep soundly. 
Thursday we hope to leave for Staunton." 

Thus came to an end the two years at the University 
of Virginia, years which were ever remembered most 
pleasantly, not only by Mr. Taylor and his wife, but also 
by the older children. 



CHAPTER V 

Second Pastorate in Staunton — Departure for Rome 

Go thou to Rome — at once the Paradise, 
The grave, the city and the wilderness. 

— Shelley. 
+ 

The Staunton Church, which had been so loath to have 
Mr. Taylor leave them, gave him a royal welcome upon 
his return. Besides the regular work of his pastorate, 
Mr. Taylor taught some hours every week in the Staunton 
Baptist Female Institute, which had recently been estab- 
lished by the distinguished teacher and scholar, Prof. 
John Hart. For one or two years after the return to 
Staunton, Miss Annie Prichard and Mr. John L. Prich- 
ard, children of Mr. Taylor's widowed sister, were mem- 
bers of his family, the former being a student in Mr. 
Hart's school and the latter at work in the office of the 
Valley Virginian. With these words of explanation, let 
Mr. Taylor's letters continue the story. 

On September 19th, 1871, he wrote from Staunton a 
letter addressed to his two brothers: 

" While I am waiting for my Moral Philosophy class 
I will write a few lines. ... I had looked forward 
to moving with almost dread, I mean the worry of pack- 
ing, etc., but we passed through it with comparative 
comfort. We reached Staunton Thursday p. m., in the 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 135 

heaviest rain I ever saw, and at once went out to Brother 
Peyton's. . . . We are mighty pleasantly fixed at 

Brother P 's, faring sumptuously, and treated with 

utmost kindness. Annie and G and I ride in to 

school every morning, and they send for us in the p. m. 
Yesterday I hauled my furniture into my house, which 
it shares with carpenters, plasterers and painters. To- 
day the ladies are fixing things, asking us to let them 
put everything in order, and simply walk in when they 
are done. We acquiesce. Of course they will find out 
the nakedness of the land. ... I preached Sunday 
a. m v without a scrap, a new sermon from 'My peace I 
give unto you.' I enjoyed it, and it has helped me since. 
I resolutely rushed through in thirty-three minutes, though 
I could have easier and better preached fifty or sixty 
minutes. I mean to come down to short sermons, as a 
rule. I have engaged for the present to teach two classes 
per day, giving forty minutes to each. . . . There's 
dinner — I'm tired, hungry and just a little blue. But 
this last I never mean to yield to, and dinner and rest 
will cure the others." 

On September 26th, 1871, Mr. Taylor wrote to his 
mother : 

"We spent all of last week at Brother Peyton's. 
. We, however, kept away from our house, being 
requested to do so by the ladies, who were meantime as 
busy as bees fixing it and doing we knew not what. Satur- 
day we were notified to come in and take possession. So 
that p. m., about five o'clock, Sue, Annie, Mary, nurse, 
baby and I, in a large two-seated buggy, and George in 



136 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

cart with Oscar and Phil Jeter and our luggage, came in, 
feeling, I assure you, very funny. This last was much 
increased by being met by Brother !N". B. Hill a square 
from the house, and told that Dr. Sears would make us 
a little speech on our arrival. We found the sidewalk 
and porch and passage and rooms pretty full, and then 
came a kissing and handshaking, and a buzz of voices ; and 
then Dr. Sears made a sweet, touching, beautiful little 
address, beginning 'Dear Pastor.' He referred to the 
sacrifices and sufferings I had endured in my former 
pastorate — the joy of the people to have me back, and their 
purpose to care for my wants — said I had fixed my house 
beautifully, and they had put some things into it, etc. ; 
and that these were not a mere ebullition, but were only 
the first fruits of what would continue, etc. Of course 
I give you only the outline of what was, as I said above, 
a beautiful, sweet, affectionate and complimentary ad- 
dress. I said 'Thankie' in a choked word or two and 
then we all had a crying spell. Then we were taken 
around. Almost all the old furniture that was worth it 
had been under the hand of the cabinet maker, and looked 
like new. The parlour and study newly carpeted, with 
same pattern, the former elegantly furnished with carved 
walnut and haircloth set. Handsome curtains to all the 
rooms and oilcloth in passage. Upstairs, one room with 
matting and latter with new set of cottage furniture. In 
the kitchen a new cooking stove, store-room and china 
closet neatly shelved and well supplied with eatables and 
ware of all sorts. Besides, the pictures were hung, our 
bed covered with new spread, and many nice ornaments 



EEV. GEORGE BOABDMA27 TAYLOR, D. D. 137 

for bureau and mantel. After taking us around, and 
saying numberless kind things, everybody left, except two 
or three, who stayed to supper. We bad fowls variously 
cooked, hot rolls, butter, tea, and coffee, and milk, several 
kinds of cake. As regards the permanent arrangements, 
I hope you will soon come and see for yourself, but you 
will be interested in hearing more details as to the pantry. 
Barrel of flour, six sugar-cured hams, quarter of beef, 
barrel of potatoes, pile of sweet potatoes, some cabbage, 
packages of coffee, sugar, spices, apples, perhaps a dozen 
or more jars of preserves, pickle, etc., three or four jars 
of lard, a dozen fowls in the coop. My books were all 
shelved. . . . Yesterday we had lots of company, 
though everybody had to come in the back door, the front 
porch being newly painted. Sunday three country mem- 
bers dined with us. Our house is pronounced 
by everybody handsome and convenient." 

Mr. Taylor's letters to his loved ones do not leave us 
in doubt about the fact that he was a most tireless and 
conscientious worker, and that he usually worked under 
the fearful handicap of very frail health, and much physi- 
cal pain. Under date of October 12th, 1871, he writes 
to his brothers: 

"... After spending two days in bed last week, 
I got up Saturday to go into the country to fill some 
appointments. The brother who was to have taken 
me couldn't go, but sent up a fine horse and buggy; so 
after taking Annie, Mary, and Spotswood a ride of 
a mile or two, I started with George. We went eleven 
miles — road, air, scenery delightful. Spent the night at 



138 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Brother Collins'. About midnight I was taken quite ill, 
and after suffering as long as I could bear it, wake d 
George, who brought up Brother Collins, who admin- 
istered remedies and stayed with me some time, till I 
was in a measure relieved. Sunday morning I was quite 
unwell, but determined to try to preach. So they made 
me a fire in the counting room in the mill, where I could 
be quiet and toast myself and study and pray over my 
sermon. We had at Greenville a large and in every way 
desirable congregation, and I have seldom felt more of the 
afflatus or had conditions more in sympathy. 

After resting until four, accompanied by Brother C , 

leaving George to go to a neighboring Sunday school, I 
went some seven or eight miles to a new Baptist Church 
right at the base of the Blue Ridge and among the pines 
as they say. Ban into a poor but hospitable house, and 
got a cup of coffee and then preached to a crowded and 
attentive congregation. Every word I spoke hurt me. 

Then we rode home [i. e., to Collins'] over the 
rough road, and in the darkness, and I got to bed by 
twelve. Monday was spent solidly in pastoral visiting, 
having worship, though all cost much effort, and at night 
I crossed over six miles, and preached at Middlebrook. 
Tuesday, rejoiced at having done my work, I came home. 

Yesterday I met my classes. ... I have 
always had a great prejudice against teaching girls, but 
I rather enjoy it. I have three classes. ... In all 
three classes is a girl of sixteen, who is a candidate for 
Mr. Hart's highest degree. She is lovely in person and 
apparently so in mind and heart. . . . Dr. Eyster 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. B. 139 

is ])ractising on me. I hope he will get me rectus in 
pulpito by Sunday." 

On December 3rd, 1871, he wrote to his brother Charles : 

" . . . I wrote yesterday the last of my four 
promised articles for the Herald. It is an account of my 
visit to Spurgeon. . . . They wrote asking me to 
write for Sentinel and offering to send that and Western 
Recorder. I agreed, ordering copies for self, J. B. T. Jr. 
(who happened to be here and said he would like it), and 
Mrs. Slaughter, who is anxious for reading matter. 
During this last week I have felt more like a 
well man (though not perfectly well yet) than I have 
done since moving over. I am trying to take more physi- 
cal exercise, which I think is the life of body and soul. 
Yesterday I walked seven or eight miles, paying pastoral 
visits, etc. You know I have no mare. This morning I 
was surprised to find the ground covered with snow, and 
the snow still falling. It thinned our congregation 
(though it was large for the day), and chilled me for 
preaching. I have seldom felt flatter, and but for re- 
membering my great enjoyment last Sunday night, I 
reckon I should conclude I wasn't called. . . . Since- 
I wrote you we have had brief, pleasant visits from 
father, Carter Braxton and J. B. T. Jr.' 7 

In a letter, dated December 10th, 1871, to his brothers, 
Mr. Taylor speaks of a recent visit he had just made to 
Richmond, referring to his sister Jane, Mrs. J. L. Prich- 
ard, and to his brother-in-law, Rev. A. E. Dickinson : 

" . . . Mother is wonderfully well and bright, 
specially when you think what she goes through. Jane 



140 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

is a wonderful worker, at times seeming stern and severe, 
but with a world of sunshine under it all. She and I 
had some sweet talks after all had retired. Alfred is as 
entertaining as ever. ... I dined one day at his 
house with Burrows, Wilson, Jeter, Bitting, Harrison, etc. 
I was at college twice . . . attending one 
of H. H. Harris's JSTew Testament Greek lectures. E 
preached Wednesday night for Wilson. . . . Robert 
Prichard is very ill, at times suffering much, and I should 
think sinking. He talked very freely to me — said he was 
often full to overflowing with happiness, and, in reply to 
my question, said that while he was utterly at a loss what 
to think of his case, he would not be at all shocked to 
know death was very near. . . . Most of the time 
father was very drooping, lying down and having little 
to say. . . . Part of the time, too, he was in pain. 
I am not without hope that he may rally; but I cannot 
repress the sad fear that he will not be fully himself 
again. He said to me : 'I say to myself night and day, I 
must shortly put off this tabernacle;' and added, 'I have 
no fear or concern on the subject.' " 

Three days later he writes again to his brothers : 
" . . . I have just written a long letter to father. 
My heart is always deeply affected when I think of how 
we have been blessed in our dear parents, and specially 
now that they are growing old and that father seems 
sinking under years and toils. I feel not only the ten- 
derest love and solicitude for him and for mother in her 
anxiety, but also as if I was called as with a trumpet to 
gird myself anew for life's battle — to try to be a better, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 141 

more self-denying, more useful man. My heart also goes 
out most tenderly to all the others who must, some day, 
I tremble to say 'ere long,' suffer with me a common and 
heavy bereavement. . . . For myself I mourn that 
I have not been to you both more like the 'elder brother' 
of us all ; while I do thank God, not only for my parents, 
but also that we, their sons, have ever, despite the indi- 
vfdualities of each, felt such mutual love and have so 
clung together, and that I, for my part, have so often 
derived great benefit from the suggestions and sympathy 
of each of you. Let us, even more than ever, cling to each 
other, bear with and help one another." 

The great sorrow was even nearer than any one sup- 
posed. The first break in the family circle came as the 
Christmas-tide approached. James B. Taylor passed to his 
reward on December 21st, 1871, with all his children at 
his side. His death was, as his life had been, marked by 
calm reliance on Jesus, and a strong, abiding peace. Long 
years after this event, Mr. Taylor wrote to a friend whose 
father had just crossed over the river, saying that life- 
had never been the same to him after his father's death. 
A resolution passed by the Foreign Mission Board declared 
that in their opinion George B. Taylor was eminently 
qualified to write a memoir of his father. Upon this 
task he at once set to work with all the ener^v and deter- 
mination of his being. He realized that it was important 
to have the book appear as soon as possible and, indeed, by 
the first week in May the MS. was finished. Yet all 
through these months he was very far from well. Again 



142 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and again his letters tell of his being sick in bed. More 
than once he was unable to preach. At one time the 
heavy work upon him, along with the great draft upon 
his emotional nature, almost gave him brain fever. Once 
for a week he went off merely to rest, though this was a 
thing he rarely ever did. His pulpit and pastoral work was 
kept up, and he even went for a meeting to Charlottes- 
ville, and was in another at the University until provi- 
dentially called home. Scarcely had he completed his 
manuscript before he was called on to carry, at the same 
time, the responsibility as the host of the Baptist General 
Association of Virginia, meeting in its annual session 
at his church, and the anxiety caused by the extreme ill- 
ness of his infant son, Spotswood. At this meeting of 
the General Association the Memorial Movement, which 
had as its object the raising of $300,000 for the endow- 
ment of Richmond College, in which work Mr. Taylor 
was to bear a prominent part, was set on foot. It is 
interesting to remember that at this meeting also a reso- 
lution was passed approving of the purpose of the Southern 
Baptist Convention to build a chapel in Rome, Italy, and 
calling upon Virginia Baptists to raise the $5,000 asked 
of them for this object. How little Mr. Taylor, or any 
one else in the meeting, dreamed that he would be the man 
who would go and build that chapel ! 

On February 4th, 1872, he writes to his brother: 

" . . . The next day I was taken quite sick, and 

didn't go out of my room for nearly a week — suffered a 

good deal — had doctor several times — was threatened with 

brain fever. ... I am at work again, but very 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 143 

'shackling', as C. E. T. would say, and will have to bear 
very lightly on myself for a while. I hope to get on the 
Memoir again next week." The next day, writing to his 
mother, he says : "My wish is to avoid the Memoir on 
Sunday, it being in a manner work." 

Rev. Dr. H. A. Tupper was elected corresponding secre- 
tary of the Foreign Mission Board to succeed Dr. James 
B. Taylor. An extract from a letter which he wrote on 
February 21st, 1872, to Dr. George B. Taylor, gives an 
interesting fact: 

"Last evening your letter of the 17th instant, covering 
fifty ($50) from your people for Foreign Missions, 
was received. That the first contribution after my en- 
trance into office should be from the son of my beloved and 
venerable predecessor fills me with deep and varied 
emotions." 

Mr. Taylor, who was such a letter writer, spoke thus 
about letters, in writing to the home circle in Richmond: 

"O what a privilege these frequent and free communings 
are ! Though not equal to face-to-face interviews, they 
are inexpessibly sweet. It is not any given thing that is 
written that is so important, and mightn't be dispensed 
with, but it is the bringing of souls that are separated 
into a sort of connection. This paper that I am now 
touching, these lines I am tracing — you all will be hand- 
ling and looking on to-morrow night. The thoughts and 
feelings of my soul, at this moment, in a few hours will 
reach your souls and cause them to vibrate in unison 
with mine. I have a pleasing picture of you all as you 
meet at the table or sit in that cheerful room — of mother 



144 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

in her chair — of Jane in her school room — of Mary help- 
ing mother in the pantry — ... of Georgie bringing 
up the mail, and Janie conning her lesson. . . . True 
two dear ones whom I met, when last with you, are gone. 
But we cannot sorrow for them. They had begun to be 
sufferers. Now they are with Christ. We do not know 
all that this means, but it has a bright, blessed meaning. 
And though not with us in body, the memory of them is 
a sweet possession. In this sense they still abide with 
me. Indeed father specially seems by my side, and his 
dying and going away a dark dream. I don't yet realize 
what is the case. Strange as it may seem, I do not. Only 
now and then I get a glimpse of the truth. This is God's 
mercy " 

To his brother Charles, on February 10th, 1872, he 
writes : 

" . . . I can't say I enjoy munching my stale 
brown bread while the rest are eating French rolls ; but 
we must eat and drink to the glory of God. . . . For 
the most part, my plan is to preach old sermons until 
I finish the Memoir. But last Sunday I preached one 
new one, which I thought fresh, on a hackneyed theme 
(Enoch). This week also I have made a new one, 'To 
Young Men' — Text, Gen. xli: 38. Points — A man in de- 
mand. What sort of man. The source of his qualifica- 
tion. . . . But save visiting I spend every available 
hour on the Memoir. I say available, because some hours 
I can only be still and suffer. . . . The writing part 
of my work is easy compared with digesting, arranging 
and selecting matter in letters and diaries. James warned 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 145 

me against inserting too freely. . . . You and I 
leaned more to the plan of letting the letters and diaries 
just tell their own story." 

In those days Staunton had no daily paper, but its 
weekly papers were ably edited. Concerning the sermon 
to young men alluded to above, after giving an outline 
of it, the Valley Virginian said: 

"We have neither the space nor ability to do justice 
to the good man or the sermon, and have only given the 
more prominent features of the discourse, without attempt- 
ing to portray the beautiful sentiments and eloquent 
ideas of the minister, nor could the beauty and simplicity 
of his words be sufficiently appreciated without being 
heard from his own lips. We hope to hear many more 
such, and to see the good seed he is scattering among us 
yield a harvest of an hundredfold." 

The Spectator closed its notice of the sermon with 
these words : "We fall far short of doing justice to the 
minister or his sermon.", 

From Charlottesville he wrote, on March 18th, to his 
mother : 

"There was some interest in the congregation here, and 
I received repeated calls to come over and preach, so that 
last Thursday I was constrained to come, expecting, 
however, to return Saturday or at farthest to-day. 
My personal preference would have been to keep on with 
the Memoir, and carry out my programme ; but the Lord 
seemed to direct otherwise, and I have lately felt much 
stimulated by contemplating my father's example, to try 



146 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

to abound more and more in labors of usefulness at the 
expense of personal inconvenience and sacrifice." 

Just a month later he writes to his mother about his re- 
turn from the University, where he had gone to preach 
for some days. Rev. Mr. Long had preached in Staunton 
for Mr. Taylor, and upon reaching Charlottesville re- 
ported that Mrs. Taylor was ill: 

" . . . I met Mr. Long and received by him a 
letter from Susan. The letter was cheerful, and urged me 
to remain; but Mr. Long spoke in such a way about her 
as to make me feel very unhappy, and decided me to return 
at once, which I did, not even going to the L T niversity for 
my trappings. I know not when my mind has received 
such a shock. It has affected me most painfully ever 
since. Sue says she begged Mr. Long not to make such 
a statement, as she knew best, but he insisted on doing it. 
I feel that I left a fine opportunity for usefulness ; but 

with Mr. L 's statement and advice I, of course, had 

no option. Susan has been improving rapidly for the 
last few days, and now says she feel almost perfectly 
well ; but is still on the bed for prudence' sake." 

Five days later he wrote to his brother James. He 
refers to Dr. H. A. Tupper, who had succeeded James B. 
Taylor as secretary of the Foreign Mission Board : 

" . . . That night I was taken quite sick, with 
burning fever, with pains in head and limbs and back, 
and sore throat. ... I continued in bed all Friday, 
Saturday and Sunday. . . . Got a Methodist to 
preach for me in the a. m., and shut the meeting-house at 
night. Dr. Tupper is a lovely man, and said and did 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 147 

everything possible to make me feel pleasantly and to 
help me. . . . Susan is now dressed, but lying down, 
feeling rather badly most of the time." 

On May 2nd he writes to his brother Charles : 

"I expect to-day and to-morrow to write the last pages 
of the Memoir, and finish the work of revision. 
The last few weeks have been a season of great pressure. 
I have written every available moment. Yesterday with 
little interruption from 7.30 a. m. to a late hour at night, 
and then after retiring could not sleep for thinking of it. 
I couldn't stand such pressure much longer. Kow my 
heart is filled with a sense of relief and gratitude to God 
to whom I have daily looked for guidance and strength 
in the matter; and I am trying to pray for direction 
and a blessing in the matter of publication." 

In a letter to his brother Charles, dated June 17th, 
1872, he tells of the session of the General Association, 
which had just been held with his church: 

" . . Everyone said the June meeting was a 

success every way. The sickness of my child and Susan's 
anxiety interfered with my comfort and enjoyment, and 
while I went on the principle of leaving things to the 
committee I had, of course, a thousand and one to look 
after myself, so that I couldn't attend very continuously 
to the meeting. I think a good impression was made alike 
on the entertainers and the entertained, and that an im- 
pulse was given to our cause in Virginia. There was too 
much bragging, etc., for my taste, and that from men I 
could hardly have expected it from. The centennial 



148 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

meeting promises to be the occasion of a great movement 
among our people. I hope and yet I tremble. 
Will we raise $300,000? ... So I am divided 
between a sort of triumphant joy and a trembling fear. 
The handsome Presbyterian Church edifice was 
dedicated yesterday week. They had a general service 
in the p. m., and I spoke for the town pastors, and my 
speech gave great satisfaction. Dr. M. D. Hoge was, both 
in public and private, very complimentary to me and the 
Baptists. Said in his speech that he had read my letters 
about London with eager interest, etc. The next day I 
got an affectionate letter from William Frazier, thanking 
me for my address, and begging me to spend as much 
time as I could at Capon Springs. . . . Our baby is 
convalescent of his pneumonia, but has the whooping 
cough, and Susan is almost broken down nursing him 
day and night for weeks and weeks. ... I am never 
well, but hope with rest to improve." 

For some weeks Mrs. Taylor and the children were 
the guests of C. R. Mason's family at their "shanty," 
near Jerry's Run. Mr. Mason was building the Alle- 
ghany tunnel, almost a mile long, and his family, to be 
with him, were sojourning for the summer in a house on 
the side of the mountain. The work on the tunnel was 
being done by convicts, and one of their number was 
cooking for the family. On July 16th, 1872, Dr. Taylor 
(a few weeks before this time the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity was conferred upon Mr. Taylor by the Univer- 
sity of Chicago and Richmond College) wrote to his 
brother Charles : 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 149 

" . . . I was summoned to my family in Alle- 
ghany, my child being very ill. The Lord was merciful, 
sparing him. ... I preached to the convicts and 
others, 'did' the tunnel, bathed, read Walter Scott, talked 
to the Mason girls, and should have had a very pleasant 
time but for losing my rest, which always knocks me up. 
Father and Dr. Poindexter are daily with me. 
Do you not experience that ?" 

The next letter, to his mother, was from Philadelphia, 
where he was attending to the publication of his father's 
Memoir. He writes : 

"I am stopping at a cheap but excellent house, and 
am very comfortable. Last evening went out and spent 
the night at Upland with Dr. Pendleton. He and his 
family treated me with great kindness and cordiality. I 
met also Professor Osgood and liked him, and a Miss 
Sally Crozer, granddaughter of the elder Crozer. 
I sat in the printing office and wept this morning, read- 
ing his last entries and letters, and the account of his 
last days." 

The "History" alluded to in the next letter was a his- 
tory of Virginia Baptists, left incomplete by Dr. James 
B. Taylor, and which his son proposed to complete; this, 
however, he never did. The date of this letter is October 
25th, 1872: 

"... Since I commenced on the History, it has 

been very absorbing, engaging every available hour day 

and night. . . . This brings me to the Memoir. 

Alfred and I furnished the stereotype plates, 

which cost, in round figures, $900. The society manages 



150 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the whole business, paying us thirty cents for each copy 
sold. The sale of 3,000 copies will just pay for the plates. 
If less are sold of course we lose; if more the proceeds 
go to the Foreign Missions and Memorial Fund. 
Tuesday Rev. A. C. Barron came and preached, and made 
a fine impression. But the next day it began to pour and 
has done so ever since. It is hard not to be disheartened 
and depressed. Brother Barron is staying with me. He 
is a lovely Christian brother, and a man of fine talents as 
a preacher. I like him much. Yesterday a daughter was 
born into my house. We call her Susy Braxton. Spots- 
wood is rather delicate, but wonderfully bright and smart, 
and, except when under the weather, good." 

To his mother, under date of November 26th, 1872, he 
writes, from Covington, Va., making allusion to the move- 
ment for raising $300,000 for Richmond College : 

" . . . I left home last Thursday to fill a series 
of memorial appointments. We have had to contend with 
very unfavorable weather, cold, snow and heavy rain; 
but nevertheless we have had a pleasant and successful 
time. ... I think I was never more harassed and 
pressed in my life than from the time of my getting 
back from Fredericksburg to the time of my leaving on 
this trip. ... I am happy and thankful that while 
my labors have been unusual, almost excessive for me, 
my strength has not failed, and my health has even im- 
proved." 

One of the most remarkable evangelists the Methodists 
in Virginia ever had was the Rev. Dr. Leonidas Rosser. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 151 

Reference is made to him in the next letter, which bears 
date of December 2nd, 1872 : 

" . Quite a remarkable meeting is in progress 

here in the Methodist congregation, under the preaching 
of Dr. L. Rosser. I have been out two nights, have called 
on Dr. Rosser, and invited him to tea. Every day I am 
more and more a Baptist, yet I trust more and more dis- 
posed to love all Christians, and rejoice in the conver- 
sions of souls by any and all instrumentalities." 

Dr. Taylor wrote on December 3rd, 1872, a facetious 
letter, to his brother James, and was a little uncertain 
as to how his brother would receive it. To this letter he 
signed himself Georgius Honeymaker Sartor: 

" . Have you ever heard, my dear sir, of a 

system known as Homeopathy (is it derived from home 
or Homer — the former would give it the charm of 
domesticity, the latter of antiquity) ? It has won mighty 
conquests. I am not a thorough convert, but I will men- 
tion one fact — I brought some of the physic with me from 
North Carolina last May, and though it has simply re- 
mained in my desk I think I have felt better than usual. 
Certain it is, I have had neither yellow fever, nettle rash, 
nor Asiatic cholera (terrible diseases), and my badly 
bruised finger is slowly recovering." 

In a letter of December 7th, 1872, to his brother 
Charles, he says: 

"The best and fullest, and most eulogistic notice of 
Father and the Memoir is in last week's Western Recorder, 
from the pen of J. P. Boyce." 



152 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

In connection with the work of the Memorial cam- 
paign, in which campaign Dr. Taylor was most active, 
he prepared a series of sermons on the Baptists and 
Virginia Baptists, first preached in Staunton and 
later published in tract form by the American Baptist 
Publication Society. He alludes to this series in a letter 
written to his mother, December 14th, 1872 : 

"I have been working intensely all the week, preparing 
the first lecture of my series on the Baptists. ... It 
will be followed by at least three others. Last night I 
worked until 12.30, but usually am in bed an hour or 
more earlier. I have been out four or five times to the 
Methodist meeting. They always insist on my having a 
big chair in the altar and taking some part. ... I 
really enjoy going, and should go oftener if I had time. 
The weather has been bitter, affording fine 

skating for the boys. J and G went last night, 

skating by moonlight till 9 o'clock, and G has been 

again to-night. . . . Some one ought to go on and 
beg for the Memorial. I had intended to spend December 
in Boston, and Brother Bitting had written, arranging for 
it, but, in consequence of the fire, Dr. Fulton wrote me 
nothing could be done. I will either go soon after New 
Year or give it all up. . . . This morning I had, 
besides my own people, some Pedobaptists, including my 
reporter friend. I took very strong ground ; hope I didn't 
hurt anybody's feelings. ... I may stir up a 
hornet's nest. . . . This morning when I got about 
half way through I discovered that I had failed to bring 
my last sheet of MS. I was mightily worried, but as I 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 153 

preached on, 1 kept collecting up those last pages, so 
that I believe I closed possibly even more flourishingly 
and powerfully than I would have done with paper. I 
make it a point to be perfectly straightforward, so I said, 
'I find, to my discomfiture, that I've left some of my MS., 
but I believe I can give you the sense of it.' I had left 
it in my overcoat, and thought it was there, but con- 
cluded not to stop, lest it might not be there, which would 
have been awkward. I generally go over the sheets just 
before preaching, but omitted it this time. . . . Sue 
went out this morning for the first time for four or five 
months." 

The year 1873 was destined to be a most eventful 
one, in some respects the most eventful, in his life. Its 
early months found him, released by his church upon 
request of the Memorial Committee, at work in northern 
cities in behalf of the Memorial movement. The winter 
of 1872- , 73 was one of unusual rigor, and remembering 
this, and Dr. Taylor's frail health, the wonder is that his 
unceasing labors, exposure to the weather, and excessive 
self-sacrifice, did not end his life. During much of his 
sojourn in the- North the health of his family was far 
from good. His wife was feeble, several of the smaller 
children seriously sick, and finally his oldest son was taken 
ill with pneumonia. In the midst of all this Mr. Taylor 
was called upon to decide a question on which his whole 
life work was to hinge. About this time he wrote several 
circular letters which went to Culpeper Court House, 
Richmond and Wake Forest, where his brothers and sisters 
and mother lived. These letters were written after the 



154 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

fashion of a newspaper, those from Staunton being called 
"The Bulletin," and those from other places "The 
Traveller." Most of these letter-papers bore some such 
heading as this: 

RICHMOND A 

n 

d 



THE BULLETIN 



Staunton, Jan. 1, 1873 



From the first "Bulletin," bearing the above date: 
" . Sunday night Spotswood . . . was 

taken quite ill, being threatened with pneumonia. 
. . . But he is better to-day. . . . The Lord be 
praised for sparing the dear child. . . . My Baptistic 
series has been an unmitigated pleasure to me. 
My topic last Sunday morning was : 'What the Baptists 
Have Done for the World/ Dr. Sears said he wished 
more Pedobaptists could have heard it. This 

relieved me. I did not know but my learning was dis- 
gusting him. . . . I go to original sources for every- 
thing. . . . How different one feels doing this from 
what he does getting everything second or tenth hand ! 
. . Last Monday night the letter of the Memorial 
Committee to the church, asking my release to under- 
take an agency in the North, was taken up. I stated my 
position thus: was willing to go if the church thought I 
could be spared, but not so convicted of duty as to insist 
if they declined. An animated but kind discussion oc- 
curred, extending through several hours. Before the meet- 
ing there had been much difference of opinion, but the 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 155 

result was a cordial and unanimous agreement to comply 
with the request of the committee. Brother Hill made 
an eloquent speech, saying he would choose never to see 
me out of the pulpit, etc., but that now my mother called, 
and I ought to go ; that my honored father had 
been summoned to a similar work, and had been released 
by the Second Church. . . . Only one thing troubles 
me besides leaving home — the fear of failure, and not 
meeting expectations. But I will do my best, much or 
little. Last night Annie, John and George were invited 
to a party at Dr. Sears'. Annie and George went and had 
a jolly good time. I religiously encourage them to go 
into society, thinking ease of manners and knowledge of 
life, talents a Christian may use for God, and they are 
best acquired by going into society — good society when 
young." 

From "The Bulletin," dated January 15th, the follow- 
ing extracts are taken: 

"It is all the rage now in Staunton to report religious 
items. It has some advantages, but is liable to abuse. 
Scene in G. B. T.'s study: Enter reporter. 'Can I get 
the MS. of your yesterday's sermon ?' 'Would be pleased, 
but gave it to another reporter at church.' 'I'll get it 
of him, but I am sorry he is ahead of me.' Lately, owing 
to my special themes, I have rather monopolized matters, 
and it has amazed me to see the willingness of Presby- 
terian and Methodist editors to print my Baptist utter- 
ances. The world moves. Mauzy, a student at the Uni- 
versity during my chaplaincy, has reported me well and 
flatteringly every week. I have had rather to hold him 



156 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

in check. . . . Spotswood convalescent, attenuated, 
weak and fretful, utterly unlike himself. Scene in cham- 
ber: Nurse holding one baby. The mother the other. 
Sometimes both babies on same lap. First babe whim- 
pers. Second babe yells. Trying to nerves. But, God 
be thanked, they are still with us." 

To show Dr. Taylor a in lighter vein," a "Bulletin — 
Extra," of January 21st, 11 p. m., will be given entire: 

"We had intended to pursue the old fogy, conservative, 
even tenor of our way ; but we find that cannot be. Heavy 
pressure is brought to bear on us, and we are forced to 
quicken our steps. We must do this or die ignominiously. 
Not willing to be second rate, we have determined, on 
entering the field as competitors with the modern news- 
paper, to out-herod Herod, and move faster than any paper 
in existence, though Jehu himself were driving against 
us. We, therefore, purpose the following: 

"First. In addition to our regular issue, we shall issue 
three extras every day, and when much is occurring will 
issue one every hour in the twenty-four. Can any con- 
temporary beat that ? 

"Second. We shall engage Mrs. John Smith to edit 
our family department, and shall have several letters of 
ten columns each from each of the younger members of 
the Smith family, who, our readers know, are numerous. 

"Third. We shall send a special correspondent to look 
for Sir John Franklin — and possibly for Dr. Bennett's 
bones. 

"Fourth. We offer the following remarkable induce- 
ments and premiums to subscribers: (1) To any one 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 157 

sending us ten subscribers with the money, a hoop skirt, 
a chignon, a rattle, a baseball, a pastor's manual, Neander's 
Church History, a fiddle, a sewing machine, a pair of 
baptizing pants, an organ and a baptistery. (2) For 
twenty subscribers without any money at all, double the 
above. (3) For fifty subscribers, strictly dead head, a 
farm, McCormick's reaper, six oxen, and a goad made of 
cedar from Mt. Lebanon. (4) The above evinces our 
desire to please all and be liberal, but we continue. Some 
may love the fine arts. Accordingly, we shall every Mon- 
day morning send an express messenger to China, and one 
to Patagonia, to select for us the finest chroinos. For 100 
subscribers we will give a chromo thirty feet by forty, and 
a house to put it in. To every old subscriber renewing, 
we offer a panorama, a Chester hog, a church steeple, and 
a scholarship at Oxford University." 

The next "Bulletin," dated January 21st, 18 73, among 
other things contains the following: 

"I saw a little newspaper item lately that touched me ; 
'Pillow Prayers.' I believe if I ever pray, it is when I 
am lying awake at night. When I awake I am still with 
Thee.' " 

On February 5th, 1873, from Philadelphia, he wrote 
to his brother Charles : 

"... Stayed two nights at your (Guy's) hotel, 
but left because it was needlessly expensive. Can be about 
as comfortable here at one-half or one-third. I have for 
some time been fighting a bronchial trouble, which was 
much aggravated by my trip here, and running around 
some in weather, either fearfully cold or else rainy and 



158 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

slushy. As the result I am almost voiceless. It is un- 
comfortable not being able to talk much above a whisper, 
and I may continue so for days. Fortunately it seems to 
be the general impression that more can be done by private 
appeals to solid men than by preaching, and I am adopt- 
ing the former plan. Still I know it would greatly aid 
me were I able to make myself heard, as I could do every 
day and Sunday too. But the Lord knows best. Doubt- 
less my physical status has been ground out by the in- 
exorable movement of natural causes working according 
to natural laws ; but that does not exclude God. The 
very day I came here I went to see Bucknell, the leviathan 
of these waters ; talked to him for two hours. He 
promised to give $1,000. . . . I have procured the 
names of some forty of the Philadelphia Baptists, who are 
more or less able and willing to give, and have printed a 
little note stating all I would say in an interview, and 
promising to call and hear the response. To-morrow morn- 
ing I shall mail these missives, give them twenty-four 
hours to do their work, and the next morning go to see 
what my bait has caught, or to change my figure; how 
my medicine has affected the involuntary patients. 
Till to-day I have felt very bright, but to-day 
my physical feelings have somewhat affected my mental 
feelings. But I do not surrender, and hope, with a night's 
rest, to be better." 

Five days later he wrote to his mother : 

" . . . Once or twice I have gotten very blue, but 
for the most part have not time. I generally go inces- 
santly from early morn till dark. ... I have gotten, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 159 

to-day, several subscriptions varying from $25 to $100, 
say in all about $600, and promises more or less definite. 
I am not elated; not discouraged. I have an idea that 
some of the Richmond brethren expect too much from the 
North — I mean more than they will get. I am willing to 
plod and toil on and do the best I can. If anybody else 
will do more or better, gladly will I give way. The people, 
specially the preachers, are very kind and cordial. 
But for details I must refer you to the " Travel- 
ler," which I spell with two l's in compliment to you." 

On February 16th, 1873, he wrote to his wife, from 
Philadelphia : 

" During the past week the weather has 

been (as it is to-day) the winterest and the worst I ever 
saw, and I have been, part of the time, literally and 
metaphorically under the weather. . . . Last Wed- 
nesday was a terribly stormy day, and I tramped the 
streets of the city, alas ! too, to little purpose. 
That night I was right sick, and had some fever, and spent 
the next half day in bed, feeling rather dreary, and fast- 
ing for twenty-four hours, feeling no desire to eat. 
But I am now perfectly well. Indeed, if I were not, I 
should not refer to the above. 

"During the past week I attended the meetings of the 
Missionary Convention, and heard J. Wheaton Smith, 
George D. Boardman, P. S. Henson, Secretary Gardner, 
of Boston, and others, speak, and Dr. Fuller preach. 

"I ran down to Crozer and called on Dr. Weston, and 
spent a night with the Pendletons, who were very cordial 
and kind. . . . . .... 



160 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

"I have secured about $2,300 in Philadelphia, besides 
getting a good many promises. . . . Everything has 
been against me — the terrible weather, the dullness of the 
season, and the two great enterprises now calling for aid 
here, the Home and the University of Lewisburg. All 
say 'this is the very worst time.' I say 'all times are bad 
to get money.' 'Yes, but this is the worst,' etc. 

"Yesterday, after going until dark, I crossed the Dela- 
ware, and spent the night with Brother Chambliss in 
Camden. They gave me an old Virginia welcome, and a 
pleasant warm chamber, which I've not been in since I 
left Staunton. ... In the night it snowed again, 
and after breakfast began to pour and the track was al- 
most unbroken, and they tried to persuade me not to 
leave, but I had promised to preach for Brethren Peddie 
and Henson to-day, so tramped a couple of miles through 
snow and rain and slush. A more terrible day I never 
saw. Congregations small and solid men not present. I 
enjoyed preaching a gospel sermon, and have seldom 
seen more weeping hearers. Then I said a few words, and 
about $50 was handed me. . . . It is still pouring, 
and the streets are almost impassable. But I shall go to 
Henson's church and see." 

From a letter of six large pages to his wife, dated New 
York, February 24th, 1873, the following extracts are 
taken. Allusion is made in this letter to Rev. Lansing 
Burrows, at present pastor of the First Baptist Church, 
Nashville, Tennessee: 

"I wrote last from Bordentown. My day there was a 
sort of rest after tramping wearily the Philadelphia 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D.' D. 161 

streets. Burrows and wife treated me with great kind- 
ness. ... I showed your likeness to Mrs. B , 

as I do generally to the ladies, and she and they all admire 
it. Wednesday p. m. Burrows accompanied me 

to Trenton. . . . Thursday morning I went to State 
House, saw Governor Parker, the battleground of the 
great Trenton battle, the building in which the Hessians 
quartered, etc. . . . Ere the train came the snow had 
turned to a driving sleet and cold rain. It was com- 
fortable enough on the cars, but what was I to do on reach- 
ing the city ? I reached Gotham in such a storm as I hard- 
ly ever saw, and the streets were almost impassable, while 
the scene as vehicles and pedestrians contended at the 
crossings beggars description. I crossed by the proper 
ferry, yet not the one I was thinking of, so did not find 
the hotel I was purposing to put up at. I quickly decided 
to retreat from the pitiless storm into the first one I could 
find, and ran into the National on Courtlandt, which 
turned out to be comfortable, and to answer my purpose 
well enough. For hours I sat by the stove, drying and 
warming, and thinking of little except that I was delivered 
from the fury of the storm. . . . Yesterday was 
bright, but fearfully cold. Miss Susan escorted me by 
cars to the First Church. It is a large, fashionable house, 

but Dr. A gave me a warm greeting, and I felt at 

home. I preached ex tempore, real protracted meeting 
style, and have seldom had more evidences of appre- 
ciation. After I finished, without a break, I, in a few 
words, referred to the Memorial movement. This plan 
was awkward, but necessary, as baptism immediately 



162 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

followed. ... At night I heard Mr. McArthur, 
pastor at Calvary, and saw him baptize. I liked much, 
but not the closing of his prayer by the choir's chanting 
the Lord's prayer. ... I must press on for the 
present, though 'tis peculiarly hard, being anxious about 
a sick family, and contending, in my own delicate health, 
with this terrible winter. . . . What would I give 
to be at home ! And to-day I feel specially depressed, not 
being well, and not knowing precisely what to do next. 
But the Lord will direct." 

This letter evidently went the round to the various 
branches of the family, for in the handwriting of Dr. 
Taylor's mother at the bottom of the sheet these words 
appear : 

"Tuesday. This was received to-day. You can send to 
Charlie. George was appointed for Rome last night. 
Hope he will not accept." 

The following letter to his brother Charles, dated New 
York, March 5th, 1873, refers to the same matter: 

" . . . I was startled yesterday morning on re- 
ceiving a telegram from Dr. Tupper announcing my ap- 
pointment to Rome. As yet I have hardly been able to 
think of the matter. But I wish solemnly and prayerfully 
to consider it. I write for two things : I want your views 
on the subject. Of course, I don't suppose a friend can 
advise on such a question, much less decide it, but he 
may help another to look all around it, and so prevent 
partial and improper views." 

As early as 1850 the Foreign Mission Board of the 
Southern Baptist Convention turned its attention to 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 163 

Europe as a mission field, and thought of sending a repre- 
sentative to Switzerland or France. Nothing, however, 
was done. In 1862 the Kev. Dr. Franklin Wilson be- 
came greatly interested in Italy, and in 1870 he spoke 
before the American Baptist Publication Society, at the 
anniversaries in Philadelphia, urging that Baptist litera- 
ture should be more largely provided for European 
countries, especially, Italy, Spain and France. Rev. Dr. 
James B. Taylor, Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board 
of Richmond, heard this address, and was deeply im- 
pressed by it. He soon wrote to Dr. Wilson, saying that 
the Board was ready to begin work in Italy, if the man 
could be found to send. Dr. W T ilson recommended Dr. 
W. N. Cote, whose father, once a priest, had subsequently 
been connected with the Grand Ligne Mission of Canada. 
Dr. Cote, who had been the secretary of the Y. M. C. A. 
of France, having been appointed a missionary of the 
Southern Baptist Convention, sailed on June 22nd, being 
instructed to establish a mission "in Southern Europe, to 
be located at Marseilles or Milan or Chambery, or such 
other point as shall, after investigation, be considered the 
most advisable." On September 20th, 1870, Victor 
Emmanuel entered Rome, through a breach in the walls, at 
Porta Pia ; the temporal power of the pope was at an end, 
and the Eternal City was open. More than one Protes- 
tant missionary began work in Rome, Dr. Cote among the 
number. At first great success seemed to attend the work 
of the Southern Baptists in Rome. Many were received 
into the church. Troubles, however, soon came. Not a 
few had been attracted by the hope of the "loaves and 



164 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

fisb.es," and some were rejoicing in the new political 
freedom which had come to them, rather than in "the 
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." There were 
other complications, and the Rev. Dr. J. B. Jeter was 
sent out as a special commissioner to meet the emergency, 
and to purchase property for a meeting-house in Rome. 
In the meanwhile the idea of a mission in Rome aroused 
great enthusiasm and interest in the home churches. It 
was determined that $20,000 be raised for a chapel in 
Rome, and Dr. George C. Lorimer was appointed as mis- 
sionary of the Board to Rome. Dr. Lorimer, having de- 
clined to accept the position, on March 3rd the Board ap- 
pointed George B. Taylor. Concerning the appointment 
the Board said in their annual report : 

"The practical sagacity, the broad cultivation, the ele- 
vated character, and missionary spirit of this brother, 
render him, in the opinion of the Board, eminently 
qualified for succession to the troubled things at Rome, 
for training native preachers, and undisciplined churches, 
and for pressing forward the work of the Lord by the 
pulpit and press, and by his personal consecration to the 
holy cause." 

On March 27th, Dr. Taylor wrote, from Staunton, to 
his mother, saying in part: 

"I write just a line to say that I reached home yester- 
day (Wednesday), and found George very sick with 
pneumonia. Both physicians were in at dark (Dr. Wad- 
dell's third visit for the day), and think the case very 
serious. Mrs. Hill and Annie sat up last night. I can- 
not help hoping he is a little better this morning. Sue 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 165 

does not think so. God reigns. George has been delirious 
much of the time, but is not now. He was very anxious 
for my return, and made very happy by it. I would 
write more, but he does not like me to leave him for a 
minute." 

Not long after writing this letter Dr. Taylor decided 
not only to accept the appointment to Rome, but also to 
comply with the request of the Board and leave for his 
new field at an early date. Mrs. Taylor had not been in 
favor of going to Rome, thinking it a hazardous under- 
taking for a man in middle life, not very strong in body, 
and with four young children. She was, however, most 
loyal to her husband and to his conviction in the matter. 
When once he had made up his mind that it was his duty 
to go to Rome, she accepted the decision most cordially, 
giving evidence at this critical time, and in all the years 
that followed, by a most brave and cheerful spirit, of how 
true and strong was her faith in her Saviour. 

On April 11th, 1873, he wrote to his brother Charles : 

"On some accounts leaving so soon and suddenly is a 
trial. Still, when I have an arduous work ahead I like 
to get at it. Everything has worked pretty well. People 
very affectionate, and ready to help Susan. In the main 
my feelings have been calm and peaceful. To-day I am 
just a little depressed from physical causes. 
My sale is on the 27th. I shall not be here. . . . 
Have studied Italian. Would have made much progress, 
but for being so busy." 

After Dr. Taylor had made all his arrangements for 
an early departure for Italy, the Board requested him 



166 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

to postpone his going until Dr. Jeter, who had been sum- 
moned home, should arrive. So he attended the Southern 
Baptist Convention in Mobile and the June meeting in 
Richmond. On June 5th he writes to his brother Charles, 
from Richmond: 

" . . . You will see by the papers, and would 
have seen still more had you been present, that I have 
lately been made more of than ever before in my life. 
This is, I think, in part a manifestation of affectionate 
regard of the existence of which I had been ignorant, 
and, of course, is in part the expression of interest in the 
mission I have undertaken. I have been astonished and 
overwhelmed. In part it has been painful, I do so shrink 
from being lionized or put forward, specially as I feel 
very small and unworthy, God is my witness ; but then 
on the other hand it is sweet to have assurance that so 
many will invoke on me His favor, who can and who 
alone can make me blessed, and my work a success. And 
I trust the kindness shown me by my brethren will only 
humble me, and cause me to seek to be more worthy of 
that kindness. ... It comes over me sometimes, very 
affectingly, what an undertaking it is to remove such a 
family as mine so far. But I trust we shall be able to 
meet all that is before us. Do you know that 

I am also to have two young ladies under my care as far 
as the Continent — a Miss Kerfoot, and a Miss Archer of 
Petersburg, the last going to study music in Germany 
for two years ?" 

Farewell was said to the loved ones in Richmond, and, 
as the train passed northward, they standing on the porch 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 167 

of the home on West Franklin Street (in those days there 
were no buildings between Franklin Street and the R. 
F. & P. track) waved to the little party starting for 
Rome. Dr. Moses D. Hoge was on the train, and a few 
years later, at the funeral of Dr. Taylor's mother, referred 
most tenderly to this scene. From Fredericksburg, where 
a day was spent to say good-bye to the loved ones there, 
Dr. Taylor, on June 14th, 1873, wrote to his mother: 

" . . . My heart was in my throat when we waved 
to each other, and Dr. Hoge, who was sitting by me, deli- 
cately left me. I had some pleasant chats with him, and 
he said some kind things of me, and of my mission. 
I find several excellent letters of introduction, 
and one of suggestions from Brother John A. Broadus. 
He is very kind." 

On June 18th, 1873, Dr. and Mrs. Taylor with their 
four children, the youngest an infant in arms, sailed from 
New York on the steamship Columbia, of the "Anchor 
Line," for Glasgow, en route for Rome. 



CHAPTER VI 

First Years in Rome — The Rome Chapel 

* 

I am in Rome ! 

A thousand busy thoughts 
Rush on my mind, a thousand images, 
And I spring up as girt to run a race. 

— Rogers. 

" Behold this temple to Thy praise, 
Make it Thy very own ; 
Here knit our waiting souls in one 
And bind us to Thy throne." 



The "Columbia" proved herself a safe but a very 
slow boat. Fourteen long days passed before Glasgow 
was reacted ; fourteen very trying days for Dr. and Mrs. 
Taylor ! She, although suffering terribly from sea-sick- 
ness, in a very small stateroom had almost all the care 
of the baby, since the nurse was sick and helpless. Be- 
sides the baby there were two other little children. Much 
of the time no small storm lay on the ship. In the next 
stateroom there was, one night, a sudden death, and other 
minor events calculated to depress were not wanting. As 
for Dr. Taylor, anxiety for the whole party was upon 
him, and he was caring now for one and now for another, 
ever most patient, cheerful and sympathetic. 

The few days in Scotland were as pleasant as the days 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 169 

on the Atlantic had been the reverse. It is doubtful 
whether any other entrance to Europe is more charming, 
for an American, than through the gateway of the Giant's 
Causeway, the Clyde, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Mrs. 
Taylor, from her earliest childhood, had known and loved 
Scott's works, and so Scotland, and her keen appreciation 
and enjoyment of Edinburgh was inspiring to all the 
little party. After some days in London, Dr. Taylor 
went on to Italy to acquaint himself at once with the 
situation there. Mrs. Taylor and the children spent the 
six weeks of his absence in an apartment of St. John's 
Wood Road, some five minutes' walk from Regent's 
Park. The children found Regent's Park most delight- 
ful, and Dr. and Mrs. Angus, at the Regent's Park 
College, were so hospitable and so kind in many ways 
that they and their beautiful English home will ever be 
most gratefully remembered. 

Upon Dr. Taylor's return, the family took up its 
journey towards Italy. It was too warm to go to Rome, 
and no place altogether satisfactory could be secured in 
Switzerland. Unexpectedly most pleasant quarters, at 
very moderate figures, were found in the little French 
city of Dijon in the famous Cote d' Or. Here, in an 
annex of the Hotel du Jura, near the edge of the town, 
two weeks were most delightfully spent. They were 
almost the only folks in the new and comfortable establish- 
ment, and the dainty French cooking was most thoroughly 
enjoyed. Every morning study, letters, lessons, reading, 
were the order of the day, and then in the afternoon came 
expeditions through the quaint streets, and public gardens 



170 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

of the town, and walks and drives out into the country, 
then in the full glory of the vintage. What a load of 
anxiety and care Dr. and Mrs. Taylor must have had 
upon them, yet they kept a brave and cheerful spirit 
and made their children very happy ! With Charnbery, 
Turin, Piacenza and Florence as stopping places, finally 
Rome was reached, October 18th. Of these months of 
travel towards Rome only one letter has been found. 

This letter from London is dated 18 North Bank, July 
20th, 1873: 

"I had not expected to be in London to-day. I was 
detained sight-seeing with my party, and delivering letters 
of introduction, and seeing persons in the interest of the 
Italian Mission, but chiefly to hear from the Continent 
touching a permanent residence for my family, while I 
should go to Rome. When at last the expected letter 
came from Geneva, it was unfavorable, and having be- 
come in the meanwhile much pleased with present 
quarters I decided to leave my family ... at this 
place. . . . The girls and I were to start for Paris 
Saturday, but on reaching home Friday p. m. I found 
the baby so sick I decided not to go. I had called on Dr. 
Angus, President of Regent's Park College, . . . and, 
though failing to see him, had received a very polite note 
inviting me to meet socially at the college a committee 
of gentlemen on revision. So I now decided, as we re- 
quired a physician, to get Dr. Angus to recommend one. 
His note in reply was very sympathetic, and mentioned a 
homoeopathist (whom he employed), and an allopathist. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 171 

I went for the latter, Dr. Holland, Lichfield Terrace, 
who came promptly, and has been in each day since. 

His charge for three visits, half a guinea, made 
low doubtless under the circumstances. Mrs. Angus 
called yesterday to offer sympathy, and aid if required. 

You remember Mrs. Roberts urged us to go to 
hear Dr. Yaughan, Master of the Temple. . . . I 
decided to go. George and the girls went to 

Westminster Abbey, and Mary Page and I proceeded 
to the Temple. We took the Metropolitan railroad to 
King's Cross, and walked a mile from that point, down 
Gray's Inn Road, Chanery Lane, and into Fleet Street 
right at the building used as a palace by Henry YIII, 
and Cardinal Wolsey. . . . The large, handsome 
building was rapidly filling, mostly with men. I was 
directed to take a seat in the rear, but when I told the 
verger I was a minister from America I was told to go 
up higher and seat Mary on the altar cushion, females 
it seemed not being allowed in the body of the house. 

"While waiting for the service to begin, I, as usual, 
looked over the hymn-book and found some very sweet 
hymns, one of which I copied, and is as follows : 

1. 

No, not despairingly 

Come I to Thee! 
No, not distrustingly 

Bend I the knee. 
Sin hath gone over me, 
Yet this still is my plea — 

Jesus hath died. 



172 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

2. 
Ah, mine iniquity 

Crimson hath been, 
Infinite, infinite, 

Sin upon sin! 
Sin of not loving Thee, 
Sin of not trusting Thee, 

Infinite sin. 

3. 

Lord, I confess to Thee 

Sadly my sin; 
All I am, tell I Thee, 

All I have been; 
Purge Thou my sin away, 
Wash Thou my soul this day, 

Lord, make me clean. 

4. 

Faithful and just Thou art, 

Forgiving all; 
Loving and kind art Thou, 

When poor ones call; 
Lord, let Thy cleansing blood, 
Blood of the Lamb of God, 

Pass o'er my soul. 



Then all is peace and light, 

This soul within; 
Thus shall I walk with Thee, 

The loved unseen ; 
Leaning on Thee, my God, 
Guided along the road, 

Nothing between. 

I make no comment on the lines. They may be not 
remarkable any way, but they affected me. . . . The 
music was the best London affords, in the Westminster 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 173 

and St. Paul's style, and the service occupied one hour 
and forty minutes before the sermon began. I confess 
I begrudged so much from the sermon, which was but 
thirty-five minutes in length, and to my taste might have 
been much longer. But the audience, men though they 
were, and of the more cultivated class, evidently came 
mainly to hear the music, and paid, I thought, but little 
attention to the sermon, to which I listened with eager 
interest. Text, Luke xn: 50, 'I have a baptism to be 
baptized with, and how am I straitened,' etc. The ser- 
mon was an excellent one. . . . Among other good 
things the Master of the Temple said that by baptism 
here we must understand immersion, and quoted that 
passage from the Psalms, 'the waters are gone over me,' 
etc. As I emerged from the Temple court, and hailed 
an omnibus, I saw on the top a gentleman whom I at 
once knew to be an American, and suspected to be a 
clergyman. We soon fell into a conversation, for Mary 
and I climbed up, and I found he was a clergyman from 
Detroit. He had been to hear Spurgeon. I reported 
myself as a minister, and was about to tell my denomi- 
nation, and ask his, when it occurred to me to preserve 
my 'incog,' and repeat the utterance of Dr. Yaughan on 
the act of baptism. I did so, and my acquaintance seemed 
nonplussed and said : 'Did he say that ? It is very re- 
markable.' 'Yes,' said I, 'he said that, and Conybeare 
and Howson, and in fact all the scholars of England and 
Germany say the same when they are interpreting, and 
not in controversy.' " This letter, finished in Paris, July 
22nd, 1873, says further: "Last evening at 8 o'clock the 



174 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

girls and I left London. ... I shall hasten on to 
Italy. I hope to meet Dr. Cote in Turin, and proceed 
to visit our stations, and evangelists in Northern Italy.'' 

At various times in his life Dr. Taylor kept a diary, 
but only one or two of these volumes survive, he having 
burned some of them. In a letter to his brother, written 
soon after reaching Rome, he gives a number of pages 
from his diary. Gioja, to whom reference is made, had 
been baptized March 21st, 1872, by Dr. Cote, in the Tiber, 
Dr. H. H. Tucker, of Georgia, being present, and later or- 
dained, the presbytery consisting of Dr. Cote, Dr. M. T. 
Yates, of China, and Dr. George W. Anderson. Gioja had 
given very serious trouble, and, before Dr. Taylor's arrival 
in Rome, had been dismissed by the Board. 

"On October the 18th we came from Florence, where 
we had been detained by Susy's illness, to this city. 
As we neared the Eternal City, after a pleasant 
journey, we witnessed a resplendent sunset. We could 
not forbear the hope that the clouded sunrise and golden 
setting might prove a happy omen. By the setting sun 
I read in Italian Ps. c. The station in Rome was crowded 
with passengers, arriving by our train, and for some 
minutes we were detained to undergo the fumigation now 
inflicted upon travellers into Italy as a sanitary pre- 
caution. We found it suffocating, but we had passed 
through the same experience on our never-to-be-forgotten 
arrival in Piacenza. ... In a few minutes we had 
driven to the humble pension provided for us, 3rd piano, 
68 Via Babuino, and after the usual contest with cabby 
and porter, this time happily conducted by the landlord, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 175 

we found ourselves quietly settled, for a few days at least, 
in our apartment. 

"The 19th was the Lord's day. Dr. Cote called early 
and summoned me to a walk. He had bad news from 
America. I trembled. I thought it was the death of 
my sister. It proved to be his final dismission from the 
service of the Board. He was much distressed. 
I felt, also, deepest sympathy for him. ... I tried 
to comfort him and tried to stand by him. . . . On 
going to the banker's I received letters from Dr. Tupper, 

and sister J ; the former quite depressing to my 

feelings. It referred to the great financial pressure. 

Being pressed for time, Dr. C and G 

and I rode to the Trastevere, and attended the service in 
our little hall. We left about sixty children eating their 

macaroni soup. ... At night G and Dr. 

C and I again rode to the Trastevere. While Dr. 

C was preaching we were rudely interrupted by 

rowdies, whom Dr. C thinks the priests sent. For a 

time all was confusion, but we rallied and had a good 
meeting. The singing specially is fine. I said a few 
words, which were interpreted. 

"October 20th. . . . G , Dr. C and I 

walked to Trastevere. Again we were disturbed, stones 
being thrown into the girls' school room. 

"October 21st. ... At night at Trastevere. 
Awake nearly all night; mind careful and troubled about 
many things. 

"October 22nd. Physically and mentally depressed. 
Wrote to Dr. Tupper, asking three months' notice for Dr. 



176 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Cote. Received a letter from Gioja. Looked at apart- 
ments; have so far found none within my means, the 
lowest being 400 lire or $80 per month! ... At 
night busy on mission accounts, and writing to Dr. Tupper. 

"October 23rd. Before breakfast, wrote the following 
letter to Gioja: 'Dear sir: Your letter asking my advice 
is received, and I am sorry to write an unsatisfactory 
reply, but stranger as I am to you, and also a new-comer 
to Italy, I do not feel competent to advise you. I can, 
however, refer you to James i: 5. Whoever truly waits 
on God will find direction. You also offer your services 
as a teacher of French and Italian, but I am not at present 
expecting to employ a teacher. Very resp'ly. 7 
I now see very clearly what has for some time been dawn- 
ing on me, that to live on the income assigned me, and 
which I thought even too liberal, will require the most 

stringent economy. . . . After dinner took G 

and Mrs. T to Colosseum. In the evening Dr. C 

came. . . . He had been apartment-hunting for me 
all day, and desponded of getting what we need at prices 
which we had hoped. . . . Our large trunk shipped 
from London, per petite vitesse, about six weeks ago, 
has not yet arrived. We need its contents and, moreover, 
I can't help feeling uneasy about it. 

"October 24th. Dr. Cote called, and we had a long, 
important conversation upon our work in Italy. Grave 
difficulties still exist, and embarrassing problems are yet to 
be solved. God alone can help. To Him I must look. 
Accompanied by Dr. Cote went to 11 Quattro 
Fontane and engaged the 4th piano [corresponding to the 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 177 

fifth floor in an American house] for eight months at 
325 lire per month. The sum is more than I can afford, 
but it is less than I had been told by all I must pay ; and, 
while high up, they combine more of the advantages which 
I esteem, such as healthfulness, privacy, pleasant English- 
speaking landlord, than any I have seen. . . . Imme- 
diately after dinner called on Mr. Wall, and had a long, 
pleasant interview with him. In 1863 he came to Italy 
as the result of a letter in the Londan Freeman, from my 
loved friend, now in glory, Brother John Berg. 

"October 25th. . . . We then engaged dinner to 
be sent from restaurant, three portions at three francs each, 
which it is hoped will suffice, with some slight supple- 
menting, for my family. My hope is to live on 900 lire 
per month, but it will require the greatest economy, and 
leave little margin for books, tuition, and unforeseen 
expenses. But I will do my best and trust the Lord. 
After dinner I went to the bank and placed 725 lire to my 
individual credit. This overdraws my account as agent 
of Board. I cannot help feeling anxiety. I need my 
salary, past due, and the evangelists will soon need theirs, 
and there are no funds, and, so far as I know, no imme- 
diate prospect of any. . . . We all also were initiated 
into the mysteries of a Roman kitchen, and contrivance 
for drawing water from the well in the court below. For 
the present, at least, Sue and Sarah will prepare what is 
necessary for our morning and evening meal. 
Bought for five soldi a bundle of mere twigs, and made a 
cheerful blast in our only fireplace. 

"Lord's Day, October 26th. Attended the Trastevere 



178 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

with George, going through a rain. Arriving before Dr. 

C , who was detained and who I supposed to be sick, 

I conducted the Bible class of youths. Of course it was 
miserably done, and I was quite willing to resign to Dr. 
C when he arrived. About fifty present. 

"October 30th. Commenced regularly to hear George 
his lessons, for the present only algebra and Italian. 
. . . During the morning rain fell more solidly and 
continuously than I have ever seen it, accompanied by 
thunder and lightning. . . . Devoted the a. m. to 
Italian grammar and reading Italian, 'Promessi Sposi' 
[Manzoni's great novel] , and p. m. to hearing letters from 
evangelists, and reading Italian aloud for criticism. Also 
went out at ^ve and bought supplies. I buy generally 
from Italian stores in preference. . . . We often 
have kid for dinner. In Florence I suspected a piece of 
meat to be that and inquired of the waiter was that mutton. 
'No/ he replied, proud of his English, 'dat de son of de 
mutton' (lamb). The boarders had a merry laugh." 

The picture of the early days in Rome is yet further 
described in a letter to his brother Charles, dated Novem- 
ber 10th, 1873 : 

"... I am busier than ever before, and though 
sometimes overburdened with anxiety, I find the days 
flying by only too swiftly. My mornings I spend in my 
study, going over mission accounts, writing to the evange- 
lists, reading the piles of letters from them which have 
accumulated during the summer, working away at Italian, 
mostly alone, but with what aid I need from Dr. Cote. 
I of course pay some attention to the grammar, 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 179 



but my main object now is to get a vocabulary, and catch 
the pronunciation, which last seems to me to constitute one 
of the chief difficulties of the language. To these ends 
I read aloud a good deal, not only in classic Italian, but 
in the Bible, and in 'Pilgrim's Progress.' . . . The 
afternoon I often spend in the same way, as we have a 
deal of dark, rainy weather, giving me the solidos dies that 
Horace speaks of, and which are so grand for the student. 
Sometimes I walk a little to get a general idea of localities. 
As for sight-seeing, I reserve that until I am less pressed, 
and feeling there will be opportunity enough for that 
hereafter. . . . After an early tea I generally go to 
the Trastevere. This gives me quite enough exercise, and 
I can do more than the old line calls for, 'after supper 
walk a mile,' as going and returning involves a walk of 
not less than five miles, and that, too, over very rough 
pavements, and I generally come back hardly able to 
climb my four flights of stairs. The necessity of spend- 
ing my evenings thus is one of the most serious sacrifices 
of personal ease I am now called to make, as it has been 
for some time my cherished and growing fancy to do all 
needed work during the day, and have my quiet evenings 
with my family at home. 

"I, however, enjoy attending the school. It is strictly 
an evangelical school, and all the more important as a 
missionary agency, because it not only gives great promi- 
nence to the gospel instruction, but reaches those who have 
to work all day and have few other opportunities for 
either secular or religious education. By the older 
scholars the evening is spent almost exclusively in read- 



180 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ing and talking over a chapter in the Bible. ... At 
the end of an hour the entire school is called together 
and catechised and lectured, and then comes the cream of 
the evening — the singing. . . . This singing is a 
fine advertisement, and is a substitute for a bell ; and 
at this stage numbers of adults, attracted by the ringing 
voices of the children, gather in near the door, and there 
is a chance to give them a few words of truth at the close. 
Now all this occurs in a most repulsive and, I suppose, un- 
healthful hall, and one that would utterly disgust many 
of our good folks at home; but it is nothing against the 
school, indeed, rather to its credit, that it flourishes so 
well under circumstances so unfavorable. Oh, what would 
I give for a really good hall, such as I can see with my 
mind's eye, fitted up with all needed appliances ! 
It is not altogether pleasant going to the Trastevere at 
night. It is notoriously the worst ward in Rome, and 
some say corresponds to the Seven Dials in London, and 
the Five Points in New York. Disorders are very common 
there. Only a few days before I began to attend the 
school a man was assassinated in the neighborhood, and 
the man from whom we rent the hall is at this time in 
prison awaiting trial for homicide. ... I men- 
tioned in my last that for several successive evenings our 
services were rudely interrupted, at the instigation, it was 
believed, of the priests. I am happy to say we have not 
been molested since. The police keep pretty near the 
hall, and we are accustomed every night to stop and have 
a few pleasant words with them. 

"I have heard intimations that there has not always 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 181 

been in the past the most perfect accord among Protestant 
Christians laboring in Rome. I do not know how that is. 
At this time there seems no lack of good feeling. It is 
certain there is room enough and work enough for all ; 
and I thank God that while I am a most thorough-going 
and earnest Baptist, I can and do rejoice in good done 
anywhere by any one. Moreover, I feel, for my own 
part, so pressed with work that I do not expect to have 
time to quarrel, even if there should ever be any tempta- 
tion to that, which I trust there will not be. 

"For a few days there has been some excitement in the 
city on account of the breaking out of cholera. I do 
not feel any special apprehension. You have probably 
heard that I had a bilious attack after reaching here. I 
have not been very well since. In fact, all of us have been 
rather drooping." 

The next letter, to Mrs. Sally Slaughter and Mrs. 
Fannie Ficklin, Mrs. Taylor's sisters, is made up almost 
entirely of extracts from Mr. Taylor's diary. Several allu- 
sions need a word of explanation. Hon. G. P. Marsh was 
the American Minister to Italy. Rev. Mr. R. J. Nevin, a 
few years after this, built the American Episcopal Church 
on Via Nazionale, Rome. Mr. Franklin Simmons, an 
American sculptor, designed the Roger Williams statue in 
Providence and the Sailors and Soldiers Monument at the 
west front of the Capitol, Washington. Rev. G. J. Hob- 
day was for some years the superintendent of the Baptist 
Orphanage of Virginia. Dr. Albert Snead was for many 
years a leading physician in Richmond, Va., and Col. 
John B. Baldwin a prominent lawyer in Staunton, Va. 



182 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

" . ". . November 11th. ... In the p. m. 
called on Hon. G. P. Marsh, two American sculptors and 
Be v. Mr. Nevin (American Episcopal), to all of whom T 
have letters ; but found none of them in. . . . But in 
Mr. Simmons' studio was much interested in looking at 
the work in progress, and was somewhat initiated into the 
mysteries of a sculptor's studio. 

"November 12th. ... At night attended school 
in Trastevere. Very interesting. I told the young people 
through an interpreter about my conversion. They always 
laugh furiously at my English, but on this occasion 
seemed much impressed by my words when translated to 
them. ... 

"November 15th. . . . Replied also to letter of 
Brother Hobday, Greenville, S. C, and wrote to Mis- 
sionary Society of Inquiry at S. B. T. S. . . . The 
streets to-day are thickly hung with national nags, almost 

every house having one. Even G and M went to 

work to construct one. Wrote to Brother B. H. Graves 
of Canton, China, who had written me a most kind letter. 
. Bather disturbed, getting letter from Gioja ask- 
ing another interview. . . . Sue and the children 
attended at the American Union Church, hearing Dr. 
Hiscock of New York preach. . . . In p. m. enjoyed 
a call from Bev. Mr. Birrell of Liverpool. 

"November lYth. . . . At 5 p. m. Gioja came, told 
his troubles, expressed penitence for the past, and earnest- 
ly begged an appointment as evangelist. Of course there 
was but one answer, but I tried to give him good counsel, 
and prayed with him. ... At six George and I went 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 183 

to Trastevere, eating our supper as we went. To-day 
wintry. 

"November 18th. A bright, bracing, cold day. If we 
only had good firing facilities we might be comfortable. 
As it is ! In p. m. took S., G., M. P., and Spots- 
wood a walk to railroad station, then to summit of Esqui- 
line, where we had a fine view of some excavations of the 
ancient city as well as of the Campagna and mountains, 
and returned through the Basilica of St. Maria Maggiore, 
almost a rival of St. Peter's. 

"November 19th. ... At 12.30 I took Spots- 
wood and went to the Parliament. ... I returned 
without seeing much besides the outside of the building. 

But after dinner I returned with G , and after some 

delay got admission, and witnessed the voting for officers, 
the ballots being dropped by the members into three 
urns. . . . The speaker uses a bell instead of a gavel. 

"November 20th. . . . Walked outside of Porta 
Pia and saw the place at which Victor Emmanuel made a 
breach, and entered the city September 20th, 1870. 
At night Sue and I went to Mr. Van Meter's. 
Present, Mr. and Mrs. Wall, Mr. and Miss Birrell, Liver- 
pool ; Prof. Norman Fox, of William Jewell, Mo. ; two 
English travellers, and two or three English residents of 
Rome. Cold turkey, beef tongue, hot biscuit and delicious 
coffee, cake, fruit, etc. We have not seen such a Peyton- 
like supper since we left U. S. . . . We reached home 
about 10.30 much refreshed every way, and bringing a 
bundle for the children. 

"November 22nd. Water in our well once more. We 



184 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

shall enjoy it. Our street is still torn to pieces 

and now we have a deep, broad sewer dug straight down 
from our door sill, revealing to us how deep is the made 
earth, and the character of the foundations, and we have 
to enter over a mountain of earth, and by crossing an 
extemporized bridge. They work at the street day and 
night and Sunday. And all Rome is being fixed up in 
this way. . . . Changed our restaurant. We will 
try a cheaper dinner. Going as I am on money borrowed 
from the bankers, and not knowing when they will decline 
to advance, or when a remittance will come, we are buying 
everything by the small quantity and exercising the most 
rigid economy. I paid to-day seventy-five cents for exactly 
two armfuls of wood. At night walked through rain to 
Trastevere. 

"November 23rd. ... To Trastevere. I read 
Luke xv, and spoke about five minutes on Jesus Christ 
the friend of sinners. I was much embarrassed and made, 
in consequence, many needless mistakes, and in fact made 
a poor out generally, but I was understood, and there 
had to be a beginning. ... I am profoundly affected 
by the death of our dear Dr. Snead, as I was by the 
deaths of Colonel Baldwin, of Staunton, and of my old 
fellow-student and associate in the Valley, F. H. Bowman, 
who fell a victim to the fever in Memphis. I would be 
admonished by these things, as well as by my many pains 
and weaknesses, of my own end. No word but vile can 
express my convictions of my own character and life. 
I have made sacrifices which I deeply feel. 
But, alas, how little purity of motive!" 



REV. GEORGE BOARD1IAN TAYLOR, 1). D. 185 

On the evening of his first Christmas day in Rome, Dr. 
Taylor wrote to his brother Charles : 

"We had a dinner reminding us of home and of the 
past — besides our usual restaurant dinner of beef, mac- 
aroni, etc., a roast turkey, some pickle sent by the Van 
Meters, some pepper, and a cup of Mocha coffee. So 
you see with all our troubles we are in good spirits, and 
doing well. And to-night Sue and I will have a sweet, 
quiet time reading and talking together. . . ." 

The next letter must be given practically without any 
abridgment. It describes the first long missionary 
journey among the churches, which Dr. Taylor made by 
himself, and it is quite typical, though the novelty to 
him of all he saw is conspicuous. This letter is to his 
wife, and is dated Bari, January 31st, 1874: 

" ... In my compartment on leaving Naples I 
had as companions three 'sisters,' who appeared to feel 
anything but kindly to me for entering. But I preferred 
them and their sour looks to tobacco fumes, so was un- 
daunted and held my place. In an hour or so they left 
the train, and from that to Foggia, say from eight to three, 
I had the compartment all to myself. At first my promi- 
nent feeling was of sleepiness, and that uncomfortableness 
which comes from losing sleep, and getting up when one 
would much prefer to lie abed. But soon I became en- 
gaged in a desperate struggle to keep warm, or rather 
to keep from being insufferably cold. The day was sun- 
less and raw, and our passage was for one hundred miles 
through a mountainous region covered with snow, while 
occasionally the clouds would spit forth the genuine 



186 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

article with a vim you would hardly have supposed 
possible in this southern genial clime. It would have been 
amusing if it had been less pitiable to see my efforts. 
My overcoat, you know, is very thin, and my half shawl 
like the covering described in Scripture. I needed it to sit 
on and to cover my shoulders and my feet. For either 
two it was sufficient, but for all three it was quite un- 
equal ; and to see me curled into a knot, and keeping 
perfectly still, so as not to throw off my needed covering, 
would have excited the risibles of the most pitying, and 
the pity of the most mirthful fellow-passenger, whom a 
kind Providence had, by keeping him away, saved the 
trouble of acting this double and conflicting part of the 
laughing and crying philosopher. Happily I had also a 
pair of cheap rag slippers along, which were large enough 
to admit my toes and insteps, leaving only the heels 
utterly unprotected. Coiled up as I was, reading was 
not easy, yet I read in Italian several chapters of the Acts, 
and I must say read them with keener zest than usual, 
entering into Paul's missionary journeys as scarcely ever 
before. Anon I would pace my compartment like a 
caged lion and even stamp around generally to keep from 
getting numb and stiff. But as the walking had to be 
done on my own empty stomach, it was the less relished, 
for, be it ever remembered, while hunger is the best sauce 
for dinner, it is not for exercise. But all things have an 
end and so had my troubles for this time, and of this 
kind. About two o'clock we began to see the ground 
once more, and I gave an involuntary sigh of relief, and 
said 'Thank God for this.' Then, too, came some strag- 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 187 

gling beams of the sun, and I actively dodged from 
corner to corner to catch each gleam. We also emerged 
into a beautiful open and fertile country, in striking con- 
trast with the dreary region through which most of our 
journey had been made. And to crown all, at three o'clock 
we reached Foggia, where I had a rest of an hour before 
changing trains and where I had the opportunity to get a 
good hot dinner, which, while it did not quite take the 
numbness out of my fingers, certainly made my body and 
my mind feel a thousand per cent better. But I am sure 
had the man of the German story, 'the man who could 
not shiver,' been with me yesterday, he could have been 
gratified, or if he had found, owing to his peculiar con- 
dition or constitution, any difficulty, I could gladly have 
helped him by relieving him of any or all of his garments. 
"At 4.30 I took another train on the great through 
route, down the Adriatic coast to the stepping-off place for 
the Orient. Still, strangely enough, I had a compartment 
to myself. But about dusk, at a certain station, eight men 
bolted for my compartment and off we dashed. They 
at once began to talk first of and then to me. They were 
athletic-looking fellows and their eyes and mustaches were 
decidedly brigandish. JSTow not only has Southern Italy 
been cursed with brigandism, but we had but a little be- 
fore passed a town which Baedeker, a most faithful guide, 
declares is still 'noted for the brigandism of its inhabi- 
tants.' Then these men whispered and made signs so 
mysteriously; how could I not have vague suspicions 
awakened? Add several suspicious circumstances — their 
most pertinacious and minute inquiries as to my desti- 



188 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

nation and whether or not I was a traveller for pleasure; 
their drawing the curtain over the lamp in the ceiling of 
the car, so as to render it almost perfectly dark; their 
crowding very close to me; and finally their producing 
and showing for my inspection several pieces of silver, 
and more than hinting their wish, which I took care not 
to gratify, to see the contents of my purse ; and do you 
wonder that with all these things I felt at least the need 
of caution, and began to think what I would do, if per- 
adventure (for I did not really apprehend danger) they 
should do this or that? And yet, after all, I presently 
assured myself that the suspicious circumstances were 
purely accidental, and portended just what the dead 
Indian answers, that is, nothing at all. The catechism to 
which I was put was due simply to curiosity. Probably 
they had never seen an American before. Moreover, my 
chief interlocutor was a lawyer. But now embarrass- 
ment on my part succeeded any other feeling. I am sure 
I felt as I sported my broken Italian, trying to gratify 
them, something as a coy maiden might feel when sur- 
rounded by her first circle of admiring and contending 
combatants for her favor; and when they seemed lost in 
astonishment that one so lately come should talk so well, 
and all eyes were on me, and all tongues busy discussing 
my revelations, really my face became hot with just such 
blushes as might have suffused the face of the aforesaid 
maiden. But having satisfied myself no harm was meant 
I boldly told them all they wanted to know about myself — 
in fact did all but produce the purse — and to my state- 
ment, 'I am an evangelical minister,' they said, 'Bravo ! 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 189 

Benissimo,' in a way quite reassuring. They left the 
train one after the other with a kind handshake ; and 
so ended my adventure ( ?). 

"In a couple of hours I was at Bari, and before I could 
hesitate much as to my plan of action, I was greeted by 
Signor Basile, and three other brethren, whose affectionate 
kisses might even have confirmed my idea of being a 
courted maiden, as above suggested, had I not learned 
to know last summer that these were the holy kisses en- 
joined by the Apostle. We walked to the excellent Albergo 
del Bisorgimento, and sat for a couple of hours talking, 
and then I retired in my ample chamber, and, thanks to 
my Heavenly Father, enjoyed a pretty good night's rest. 

"But, alas, this morning was cold and rainy as I went 
out to a restaurant in the rain for my caffe. Oh, how cheer- 
less it was ! How was I shocked and saddened to hear 
there that this was the last day of a poor fellow con- 
demned to be executed in this city ! It has been a pall 
over my soul all day, and at one I thought, 'at this hour 
he is meeting his doom' ; and then presently the people 
came thronging back from the scene and presently all were 
reading the huge placards in reference to his execution. 

"Till eleven this morning I sat talking with the brethren, 
but, oh so cold; equal to any November day I ever felt! 
Then I said I must have a room with a fire. Alas ! no 
such room in the house. Then I demanded a scaldino, 
which warmed my feet, but badly affected my head. Alas, 
winter life in Italy is often the quintessence of all un- 
comfortableness. My brethren said, 'Oh, this weather will 
not last many days.' 'No,' said I, 'but if by the time it 



190 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

gets fair and warm the bad has killed me, what good would 
the sunshine do me ? At which all were infinitely diverted. 
I have been busy talking all day, I trust usefully. I have 
tried to talk for Jesus. This letter I have dashed off for 
recreation, and now have not time even to read it over. 
Have just taken a look at Horace's 'stormy Adriatic' and 
now go to sup with an evangelical family. In much 
haste with oceans of love to each and all. Your devoted 
Husband." 

Under date of April 4th, 1874, Dr. Taylor wrote to 
his brother Charles : 

"Probably before receiving this you will have seen of 
an advance step taken by our mission in the baptism of 
several in Milan, the beginning of a Baptist Church. 
Last evening I received a letter from Bari men- 
tioning the baptism of four. This is encouraging. Per 
contra there came also a long document signed by thirty- 
two persons disaffected, who have left the church (or 
been excluded, some of them) , . bitterly complaining of 
injustice, and making grievous charges against the evange- 
list and the rest of the church, and appealing to me for 
redress, and also to rectify matters. ... I fear to 
do nothing and yet do not know what to do. 

" . . . . The Board seems embarrassed, and I have 
been keeping the mission going by borrowing constantly. 
You can imagine the disagreeableness of this as well as 
'the anxiety I am kept in. Sometimes I am nervous at 
the postman's ring or the entrance of a person, lest it may 
be a demand for a payment I cannot meet. Our entire 
band of laborers lives from hand, to mouth, and our rents 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 191 

have to be paid with great punctuality to avoid being 
turned out, or at least much trouble, and consequently 
all the time, and certainly at the beginning of the month, 
I am in more or less trouble. When remittances come 
they generally about pay what has been borrowed, and 
then the story is repeated. I have just had considerable 
trouble turning the 1st of April corner. I had borrowed 
$700 from Mr. Van Meter, whom I paid by borrowing 
from the bank, and, of course, look anxiously for a remit- 
tance. . . . The Board being so pressed I have de- 
clined two months' salary. This I do very cheerfully, 
though it presses me. I have lived with sufficient com- 
fort in some things, but have used and am using a very 
strict economy, foregoing many things that I think few 
brethren would wish or expect me to do." 

From a sixteen-page letter to his brothers, dated June 
9th, 1874, the following extracts are made: 

" . . Last Sunday I preached at the Scotch 
Presbyterian Church, a handsome building outside the 
walls. ... I enjoyed preaching. . . . There 
were several pleasant episodes. . . . Who should 
come up after the sermon but Mrs. McGuffey and the 
Misses Howard! . . . While I was talking to them 
a lady sought an introduction, saying she was from Phila- 
delphia, and that one of the recollections of her child- 
hood was the devotion of her mother to my father. Then 
came up two or three gentlemen, very profuse about the 
sermon, one of them borrowing it for himself and party. 
You remember Broadus telling you of Spurgeon's deacon 
asking him (S ) what he would drink after preach- 



192 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ing, etc. Well, in the Scotch Church here they give no 
option, but have in the preacher's retiring-room only port 
wine and crackers. Suppose the preacher had poor teeth 
and needed something stronger ! Among those 

at the Scotch Church Sunday was our good, dear doctor, 
Dr. Gasou, who is really the (low) English Episcopal 
Church in Rome, having almost single-handed kept it 
going and built the new, beautiful house. He invited me 
after sermon to take tea with him last evening. I went 
and had a really pleasant time, with him, his wife and 
the cat, who constitute the family. They are very intelli- 
gent and cordial, and wonderfully friendly to me and 
mine. He is a warm-hearted Irishman, a real church- 
man, but a good Christian, and a hater of humbug. He 
goes to the Bagni di Lucca to-morrow, where he is resident 
physician, and is going to arrange for us, who expect to 
follow in a few days. ... I have been very busy 
all day, mostly answering Italian letters. Every day the 
difficulties, complications, embarrassments of this work 
grow on me. ... I am preparing an address to make 
when I visit some of the churches this summer. Shall 
prepare carefully, but probably speak ex tempore. 
God grant whatever comes I may be saved from adding 
another to the quarrels that have been the curse of the 
evangelical work in Italy, specially in Rome. 
This morning, before breakfast, James probably went out 
into his garden with Poindexter and Boyce and gathered 
his vegetables for the day. George has no garden, but 
he, before breakfast this morning, went out with Mary, 
Spotswood and Susy to seek supplies for the day. 



EEV. GEOEGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOE, D. D. 193 

Leaving the little ones in the shade watching the black 
goats, which come in to be milked, he struck boldly across 
the piazza through the sunshine, which even at that early 
hour was burning, and quickly made his purchases — a 
nice steak, some potatoes, snaps and tomatoes, and a hand- 
ful of oxheart cherries for the children. Then he stuffed 
a pad of butter in his pocket. They have such a nice 
fashion here, in every store, where anything like meat or 
butter is sold: they keep a large supply of fresh grape 
leaves. The butter is wrapped first in the grape leaves 
and then in paper." 

From a ten-page letter, dated Bagni di Lucca, July 
21st, the following extracts are made: 

" . . . My strength is very limited. I am some- 
times alarmed — constantly distressed — to find how little I 
can do. Spotswood enjoys playing in the gar- 

den, a rare treat to him. I have had him and Mary a little 
wagon made. Spotswood seems quite contented when 
he is riding, and when he has his mouth full of figs, 
but though these last are tolerably abundant and I have 
so many Baptists to back me, I can't keep it full all the 
time. What a sweet thing to be a three-year-old and to 
have no higher wish than to have plenty of figs, and to 
sleep with 'inudder !' . . Mary has entered on life's 

more serious stage. . . . She reads history and 
writes a little. . . . George takes daily lessons in 
Italian, and can understand the common talk of the com- 
mon people better than I. Susan fills me with 
surprise. After so much care and watching she looks 
to-day as young and bright as any time for the past fifteen 



194 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

years. Only some white hairs tell that the time is pass- 
ing. ... I am just finishing Dr. Di Sanctis' work 
of 150 pages on 'The Mass.' It is wonderfully erudite 
and piquant and able. . . . When I returned from 
Europe Brother Fife asked doubtingly, 'Are the mountains 
of Europe more picturesque than ours V I said, 'Add to 
what you have terraces of vineyards and cap the summit 
with a ruined castle.' I am reminded of it daily. I have 
but to look up from my paper to gaze not only at the 
lofty mountains and brawling river, but at the luxuriant 
vines, and at the grey stone building which surmounts 
the lofty peak. It is a daily joy to me." 

The following extracts are from a long letter, dated 
Bagni di Lucca, September 24th, 1874: 

"... The other day Spotswood said tragically 
and with tremendous emphasis, 'O Pa, I am fairly 
starving.' I was very much touched and hastened to 
prepare bread and butter, when he said solemnly, 'I'm 
not starving for that sort of thing, but I'm starving for 
the good fruit you all have been eating.' . . . Mr. 
Van Meter amused me by telling how he went to Fulton 
Market, New York, and said to a man, who is famous 
for his oyster stews : 'Now, my friend, remember that I 
have not tasted an oyster for a year ; imagine my feelings 
and act accordingly.' ... I brought with me from 
Rome quite an assortment of tracts, wishing to leave my 
testimony in this region which has afforded so delightful 
a refuge to my family. . . . Day before yesterday 
George and I took a donkey between us and climbed a 
very high mountain, on the very top of which is a village 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAK TAYLOR, D. D. 195 

with its solid stone houses and narrow paved stiv ts. 
Providence favored me. Two or three young men, un- 
usually intelligent looking, were standing or sitting to- 
gether. I took my seat on a stone curbing, holding my 
bridle (George having gone to get some grapes, for this 
village is surrounded with vineyards and they were in 
the midst of the vintage), and thus seated I commenced 
a little chat, offering cautiously some simple gospel tracts. 
I then said as they were accepted, 'These are about the 
Saviour, etc. I have others which are controversial, op- 
posing the Mass and the Confessional, but I don't wish to 
give them to you without telling you what they are, and 
unless you wish them.' They passed some words among 
themselves, and I, seeing that 'Barkis was willin',' passed 
over my other sort, insisting, as I did so, specially as young 
men they ought to seek diligently to know the truth. 
Others came and I soon gave away a good many with as 
much adaptation as possible. I could see sundry persons 
passing and looking suspiciously and scowlingly on me and 
my work. Having finished my distribution, which had 
been accompanied by a running fire of talk, I rose, and, 
fronting the party, said : 'The substance of it all is that 
God has so loved the world that He has given His only 
begotten Son that whosoever believeth, etc. We all then 
may be saved without money and without price and we 
may go directly to God without any priest but Jesus. We 
all ought to accept Him, and if we do trust Him we will 
love Him and try to please Him, etc. I am doubly a 
stranger. For I am a foreigner, knowing little of your 
language, and do not know you by face. Probably I shall 



196 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

never see you again till we meet at the judgment. 7 Then 
I bowed and bade them good-bye, which they most respect- 
fully reciprocated, and I took my way down the mountain. 
To-day I made another sally. Our new apart- 
ments in Rome necessitate our furnishing linen, and as a 
good deal is made in this region it seemed well to seek 
it here. Dr. Gason recommended Gallicano, a village 
twelve miles from this, and I determined to make an 
excursion of it, taking Sue and some of the children. 
Accordingly at 7.30 this morning Sue and I, Mary and 
Spotswood set off in a light, open buggy with a jolly little 
black horse, and a driver whom we knew. I leave to Sue's 
more graphic pen to describe the ride, the scenes, the 
vintage, the quaint village, and our curious experiences 
in bargaining for and buying the linen. When it was all 
over I commenced my colporter work. . . . Here, 
too, I preached my three-minute sermon and left results 
in the hand of God. . . . George and I read 'Silvio 
Pellico' daily." 

After spending the summer at the Bagni di Lucca in 
Tuscany, the family was again in Rome, keeping house, 
this year at 28 Via del Tritone. In a letter to his mother, 
dated November 10th, 1874, Dr. Taylor writes: 

" . . . I have kissed Spotswood and Susy, who 
are in the hands of Ottavia and Libera, getting into bed, 
and Sue is washing up the tea things while George and 
Mary are by me preparing their lessons for to-morrow. 
We all enjoyed our supper of bread and butter and grapes. 
Instead of cake we have as a sort of luxury the Pied- 
montese bread, which is white, and nicer than what we use 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 197 

as our staple. The grapes are delicious. . . . Prof. 
Edward Judson, of Madison University (son of Adoniram 
Judson), has resigned his professorship to spend some time 
in Europe, and has come here with his young wife for the 
winter. -. . . The arrangement has been made for 
Professor Judson to supply for a time the American Union 
Church in Rome. ... I have seldom seen a man 
who pleased me more. He is bright and full of life, and 
very intelligent, but simple-hearted as a child, and is to 
me at once more affectionate and deferential than anybody 
I have seen for a long time. ... I anticipate much 
pleasure from his society this winter. . . . Last 
Sunday we celebrated the Lord's Supper, about six Eng- 
lish-speaking and the same number of Italians. 
It is the first time Sue has communed since leaving 
Fredericksburg." 

On November 18th, 1874, Dr. Taylor wrote to his 
mother : 

" . . . My own daily perplexities and anxieties 
are very great. . . . Our family is a little world in 
itself. . . . The children are a great solace. 
One week ago to-night we had a little company, the Van 
Meters, Judsons, Dr. Wassen and his little boy, Dr. and 
Mrs. Vernon and their daughter of Mary's age, and Dr. 
Thomson and his grown son. Dr. Thomson is the rather 
distinguished author of 'The Land and the Book/ and for 
many years missionary in Syria. He was very enter- 
taining. I told him that wishing to prepare my little 
daughter I had asked which was the land, the most inter- 
esting land in the world, and that she had said and in- 



198 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

sisted it was America. He laughed and said she was 
right." 

This winter Dr. Taylor had opened a locale on Piazza 
Monte Citorio, just across from the Parliament building, 
and Mr. Cocorda, a Waldensian by birth, educated under 
D'Aubigne in Geneva, baptized by Dr. Taylor, had come 
to Rome as the pastor of the little church. Writing on 
November 23rd, to his brothers, Dr. Taylor said: 

" . . . I took George and Mary and Annie Craw- 
ford and Mr. and Mrs. Judson and their brother-in-law, 
Rev. Mr. Hanna, a grandson of Alexander Carson, and 
now pastor in Brooklyn, to our locale at 11 a. m. 
Cocorda spoke well. . . . Gardiol from Civita Vec- 
chia was present, and followed Cocorda. Then I said a 
very few words and prayed. The singing was very good. 
Cocorda, before administering the Lord's supper, 
explained our position on that subject, which he did 
capitally, saying among other things that persons should 
not wish to render the social before they had rendered the 
individual testimony. ... I proposed that as there 
were several English communicants present we should 
have one prayer in English, and called on Professor 
Judson." 

On February 25th, 1875, Dr. Taylor wrote to his 
sister-in-law, Mrs. Sally M. Slaughter: 

" . To-day two weeks ago we had a pleasant 

surprise. I was reading my Bible before starting to the 
locale, when Mr. and Mrs. Judson were announced. You 
remember how we learned to love them before Christmas. 
Now it was like meeting old friends, and besides there 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 199 

was the keen pleasure and interest of hearing their ex- 
periences in Egypt and the Holy Land. They brought 
us a carpet-bag full of oranges from Corfu. 
Personally it is a great cross to me not to preach regularly 
every Sunday. I often feel it like a fire in my bones. 

I attended last week two very remarkable meet- 
ings, both at the large and fashionable church of the Gesu. 

The preacher occupies a platform erected for 
the occasion, and has nothing before him, and standing 
out with his black cap and long, graceful robe the effect 
is very striking. On each occasion there were two dis- 
courses. The first was by a middle-aged, tall, handsome, 
oily-mouthed Jesuit, who made very many good hits, keep- 
ing the people on the qui vive, and insisted with much 
Jesuitical casuistry on the importance of the Confessional. 
After him several monks in white gowns wormed their 
way through the congregation, taking up the collection, 
announcing the proximity to each person by a dexterous 
jingling of the bag. This done, came a second discourse, 
which was by a portly, aged man, with a large cross sus- 
pended at his side. His voice was powerful, his tones 
pathetic, his manner not unlike one of our best Virginia 
preachers in a revival, and his sermon largely evangelical, 
containing sundry apposite citations from the scripture. 
. He closed with a fervid appeal, fell upon his 
knees, led in ex tempore prayer the congregation who knelt 
as one man. Then followed the pageant of the Mass, the 
offering of incense and imposing music, the vast congre- 
gation joining the choruses, so that I was thrilled at the 
time and even now seem to hear the vibrating notes." 



200 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

On April 15th, 1875, Dr. Taylor wrote to his brother 
Charles : 

" . . . I went to bed and remained there a couple 
of days. It always troubles me that when I am sick just 
a little, I lose all interest in everything, religion included. 
It is a miserable experience. ... I meant to stay 
at home with Sue and let the children accompany these 
gentlemen to see the illumination of the Colosseum, it 
being the 2,628 anniversary of the founding of Rome, 
but Dr. Gason . . . asked me to accompany him and 
I went. The crowd was immense, counted, I am sure, not 
by ten or twenty thousands, but rather by the hundred 
thousands, filling up every street and open place for a 
quarter of a mile around in every direction. I was taken 
with a sort of fainting spell, and after seeing the Colos- 
seum in its glory for a minute was too happy to lie as best 
I could on a ledge of the Arch of Titus, with my head in 
Dr. Gason's arms. I think I shall never forget the anxious 
misery of those moments. ... I lay no stress on my 
little attack last evening, and only mention it as one of 
the res gestae, as the lawyers say." 

On May 4th, 1875, Dr. Taylor wrote to his sister 
Fannie (Mrs. A. E. Dickinson) : 

" . . . I had intended to start Saturday on one 
of my trips, but Dr. Vernon begged me as a special favor 
to fill the pulpit of the American Chapel on Sunday, and 
I stayed over for that purpose. . . . From the dinner 
table George, Mary, Spotswood and I hurried to the 3 
o'clock singing meeting at our locale. ... I spoke 
for ten minutes. ... It was all perfectly unpremedi- 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 201 

tated. ... At the meeting last night there was 
handed me a letter . . . informing me officially of a 
meeting to be held in Brighton, urging me at the expense 
of the Committee to be present as the representative of 
the American Baptists. ... I think representative 
men from all parts of Europe will be present. ... I 
have decided to go." 

The family went for a second summer to the Bagni di 
Lucca, spending several weeks in September at Leghorn. 
Dr. Taylor wrote to his brother Charles from the Bagni 
di Lucca, July 8th, 1875 : 

" . . . I see from the Dispatch that a letter from 
U. S. to Italy will now be five cents; if it is so you will 
have a little advantage of us, for we will have to pay 
eight cents on those we send. Ergo you must write eight 
letters to our five. I am amused to see that newspaper 
postage has been reduced to two cents. Mahomet and the 
mountain. The Italian and U. S. Government and I have 
been trying for nearly two years to get the Biblical Re- 
corder to put four-cent stamps on, but B. C. with true 
N". C. conservatism and courageous steadfastness has 
persistently declined; and now the governments say, 
'Well, the B. C. shall have things its own way, and Taylor 
gets his paper without having to pay eight cents more per 
number.' ... I came here this summer very anxious 
to do something for the evangelization of this interesting 
region. So far my efforts to get a place for meetings have 
failed, those who have suitable rooms being afraid to let 
them for such a purpose. . . . Meantime I go out 
almost daily, talking to individuals as the opportunity 



202 LIFE ANp LETTERS OF 

offers. . . . Day before yesterday I was much 
favored. George and I took an ass in partnership (not 
to ride and tie, but to ride and drive), and ascended to 
Lugliano, a lovely village on the top of a mountain. On 
the way and in the village I had many pleasant conver- 
sations, being enabled in every case to introduce the gospel 
in a natural, easy manner. In the piazza I began to 
talk, and quite a crowd gathered to hear. I, of course, 
gave out some tracts, but rely even more on the spoken 
word, however feeble, and when tracts are given I like 
it to be not mechanically but discriminatingly, and in 
connection with conversation. Yesterday I went again to 
Benabbio. My companions were an ass, and Mr. Smith, 
for many years a British officer in India. 
Reaching the village, I found a stable and tied my ass so 
as to be quite foot loose. We then went into the first 
open place we saw. I was the more inclined to do so 

as it was a shoe-maker's, and Mrs. W thinks they are 

liberal and impressible. I was courteously received, and 
soon began to talk, and then to read passages from my 
Testament. But I found, presently, the coast wasn't by 

any means so clear as in L the day before. The 

men (there were three) listened pretty well, but one of 
them replied warmly, though courteously; then Smith 
put in, and I saw there was danger of a more wordy 
controversy, and I checked it at once, and began in a 
different strain. Meantime the village priest, whose 
garden overlooked the shop door, had stopped to listen to 
us, and, hearing some statement of mine, shouted out in 
loud and angry tones that it was false. I fortified and 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 203 

explained what I had said, and then one of the men very 
courteously took me up into a sort of society hall, upstairs, 
where we went on talking. As I started to come down, 
Smith having left me, I saw the priest with another coming 
to the shop, with quite a number of men. I saw I was in 
for it and determined to stand my ground. On getting 
down I found the two priests sitting in the shop, while 
quite a company was gathered around the door. One of 
the priests began by saying we were not wanted there ; 
that our doctrines were destructive, and they would burn 
all our books and tracts, etc. I replied very calmly that 
I had no wish to intrude anywhere, but that I had a right 
to go where I pleased, and talk to whom I pleased, pro- 
vided they wanted to hear me. 'Yes,' said one of the 
priests, 'but not on religion.' 'On any subject whatever.' 
We then got into a discussion which touched on many 
points, salvation by faith, the Confessional, the right and 
duty of the people to read the Bible, etc., and continued 
for perhaps an hour or an hour and a half. The position 
was very trying, and sometimes the priests would use 
ridicule, and appeal to the prejudices of the people against 
us, and it was not always easy to reply to everything in 
the very best words, specially in a foreign tongue ; but in 
the main I held my ground pretty well, citing from my 
Testament, and reading from one or two tracts to show 
the doctrines we teach. God enabled me to be perfectly 
calm throughout, and I could see that, though many of the 
audience were to a considerable extent with the priest, I 
had made, on the whole, a favorable impression personally, 
while perhaps some words had not been fruitless. I 



204 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

parted in a friendly way with the priests, making them 
shake hands, and inviting them to come to see me, and 
telling them I would call on them." 

On October 9th, 1875, from Frascati, Dr. Taylor wrote 
to Rev. J. B. Taylor, his brother: 

" . . . You know about our going to Leghorn. 
We spent nearly three weeks there very pleasantly, and I 
think the sea bathing, though after the season, was a great 
advantage to us. I feel better than at all during the 
summer. It is almost the first time I was ever near the 
sea except for only a few hours together, and it was charm- 
ing to walk right on the beach, to watch the waves — 
specially when lashed into fury by the wind — to count the 
vessels coming and going, to see the lighthouse with its 
revolving light, to take an occasional row, to visit the 
British men-of-war in the harbour, and every day, almost, 
to take a plunge into the ocean, and to walk into the city 
and along the wharves, seeing persons of different 
nationalities, and now and then exchanging a few words 
with sailors or boatmen." 

In a letter, dated January 22nd, 1876, to his brother 
James, Dr. Taylor refers to Mr. Judson, who within the 
year had decided to enter the ministry, and had become 
pastor of the North Orange (1ST. J.) Baptist Church: 

" . . . Judson wrote me that his church once 
devoted an evening to praying for our work here. Perhaps 
yours would do the same. . . . Dr. Curry and his 
party have been in Home over a week. I see him daily, 
and have talked to him very freely of the work. We now 



EEV. GEOEGE BOARDMAN TAYLOE, D. D. 205 

propose to have a meeting of our evangelists here next 
week. I was anxious for them and Curry to see each 
other." 

On May 24th, 1876, Dr. Taylor, writing to the Board, 
said: 

"Yesterday Mr. Cocorda baptized, in an excellent 
baptistery which we have constructed in the basement of 
our locale, five persons. ... I was reminded of the 
baptisms of the Catacombs, but all was 'done decently 
and in order.' . . . If we find it difficult or inex- 
pedient to buy property, the having this baptistery makes 
us more contented to remain in rented premises." 

On June 25th, 1876, Dr. Taylor wrote to his mother: 

"I have felt grieved and sad at hearing that you are 
not well, and that at such a time you have the worry of 
the dear old house being moved. . . . How I wish I 
were near you to add my part towards ministering to your 
comfort and happiness ! The only thing I can 

do, besides writing these lines of love, is to commend you 
to our heavenly Father, who loves us more than we love 
each other, and who has promised to do for us all that we 
need." . . 

The summer of 1876 was spent by the family near La 
Tour in the Waldensian Valleys, Dr. Taylor himself being 
away much of the time visiting the various stations. 
During this summer George, the oldest child, went to 
America to enter Richmond College. Just before his 
departure, he had the never-to-be-forgotten privilege of 
a little pleasure trip, first with his father to Bologna, 
Venice and other points of interest in North Italy, and 



206 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

then with both of his parents to the Italian Lakes. His 
father accompanied him to Glasgow, where he set sail 
for America. Both father and son had dreaded the 
separation, but the seasick, homesick boy, alone on the 
ocean, never knew until years later that his father, after 
the ship had sailed, had returned to the boarding house 
in Glasgow where they had stayed together, and sobbed 
with sorrow for him. 

The following lines are from the pen of Dr. Taylor's 
younger son, Dr. J. Spotswood Taylor: 

"From his youth my father had a passion for physical 
exercise and the open air. After my brother went to 
America to go to college, I became his constant companion, 
and the influence which he exercised upon me, and the 
most lasting recollections I possess of my father are de- 
rived from our association in our walks. He loved best 
the Esquiline Hill where the city was less built up, be- 
cause many large open spaces remained there, the sweep 
of the eye was greater, and the air purer and freer. But 
sometimes he would dive into the most congested quarters 
of the city, where sidewalks were unknown, and where 
vehicles worked their way with difficulty through the 
swarming pedestrians, for he loved Borne and the Bomans, 
and mankind generally, and was deeply interested in all 
phases of human life. In these walks and in our rambles 
in the country during the summer, he did what he could 
to connect the great events of the histories and authors I 
was studying with the scenes around us, and he drew my 
attention to everything in nature, about which he could 
contribute some fact, and set my mind to working." 



KEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 207 

From 20 S. Nicola di Tolentino, Rome, Dr. Taylor 
wrote, November 25th, 1876, to his brother Charles : 

" Dr. Fuller was one of those — so majestic, 

so commanding, so full of life and vigor. '1 

cannot make him dead.' . . . Presently Sue called 
me. We two had delicious tea together. We enjoyed the 
quiet and being alone, and talked of how old people liked 
an occasional quiet moment." 

On July 4th, 1877, Dr. Taylor wrote, from Naples, to 
his brother Charles : 

" . . . I wrote you of having the use of an ex- 
cellent library at the Bagni di Lucca, where we go generally 
every p. m. to read a London paper and some Italian and 
French ones, and to take out such books as we want. I 
have been reading and am now reading, on this present 
journey, Lockhart's 'Life of Scott,' four large octavo 
volumes. It is for me a rich treat. . . . Verily no 
romance from his own gifted pen is so romantic as his 
own career, and his letters and diary, specially the latter, 
admit us to the inner sanctuary of his soul with its trials 
and struggles under circumstances that are unparalleled. 
Then the book is a picture gallery in which the great men 
and women of his time are placed before us in life size, and 
with the color of nature. ... Of course I have al- 
ways known the general outline of Scott's life, and the 
general character of his genius, but that is very little com- 
pared with what one gets from reading this memoir. By 
it, too, the long, and otherwise lonely, hours of the present 
journey have not seemed long or been lonely. Only I 
have often wanted a friend to speak to of it, as I now do 



208 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

to you. I am as you know, when at home, blessed beyond 
many in this regard, my wife being able to sympathize 
with me perfectly in such things, and, in fact, more versed 
in a certain department of old English literature than I 
am. I have a fancy that it is not a bad thing to range 
in a library of standard volumes, and to read the old 
books that are not the mode now, and that are in danger 
of being pushed out of the way by the swelling stream of 
current literature. I have a fancy, too, for dipping into 
and getting an inkling of many books that I can't and 
don't care to read." 

On December 8th, 1877, Dr. Taylor wrote to his 
brothers : 

" . The past week has been signalized by the 

visit of the Deputation of the Evangelical Alliance sent 
to heal, and to report on, the strifes and divisions among 
the workers in Italy, and especially in Rome. They 
arrived Tuesday in the midst of terrible weather. Most 
of the brethren went to meet them at the station. I did 
not go, being sick in bed. But at 8 o'clock at night I 
dressed and went to their hotel, where we had arranged 
to give them a supper and a reception. About thirty were 
present. I sat next to Dr. Donald Erazer, of London, 
who is a tall, fine-looking man, with long, white hair, and 
manners like those of Moses D. Hoge. Appointments were 
made running through several days for us all to meet 
the deputation separately, and unfold our respective 
grievances. Mr. Cocorda and I went together. I told 
them I had no complaints or confessions to make. But I 
had as a Baptist to stand up very firmly against some 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 209 

latitudinarian ideas that were broached. To-day we had 
a very remarkable meeting, composed of all the workers, 
etc., of Rome and vicinity. Addresses were made by 
Dr. Frazer and Mr. Bligh (through interpreters), and 
by Mr. Arthur (author of 'Tongue of Fire'), in Italian. 
Then we had addresses by Gavazzi, Cocorda, Wall, many 
others that you don't know, and by myself. I think I 
had as much liberty as I almost ever had in English. My 
talk was a plea for large-heartedness and fidelity to prin- 
ciples and mutual forbearance, and I urged that the try- 
ing circumstances in which we were placed in Rome, in 
our relations to each other, was a part of our moral edu- 
cation. I felt very deeply, and think that I had the 
hearts of my hearers. We had some very plain talking 
about personal difficulties. Indeed, I think I have learned, 
more than ever before, how plainly and frankly people 
can talk without getting mad. Thursday night Sue and 
I went to a large tea party given to the deputation. It 
has been a trying, exciting, partly pleasant, partly pain- 
ful week to me. I have been criticized for taking some 
ex-Pedobaptist workers, and entering some fields (Venice) 
where others claimed a monopoly. I have calmly cor- 
rected some gross misrepresentations, and defended my 
right to do what I have done. A Waldensian complained 
to-day of my writing articles on Baptism. I replied you 
may write on it every day. We must not confound the 
discussion of principles with personal antagonism. I have 
had two agues this week, but have been taking quinine, 
and hope I shall not have another. Dr. Prime, of the 
New York Observer, is here. He called on me, but I was 



210 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

in bed and Sue saw him. I have since called on him. He 
is very pleasant." 

Dr. Prime, to whom allusion is made in the last letter, 
wrote thus concerning Dr. Taylor and his work: 

"Rev. Dr. Taylor is a man of decided character; with 
a clear and vigorous intellect, a tender and glowing heart, 
and such a sound judgment as secures for him the respect 
and confidence of all who represent Protestant missions in 
Rome. ... In another part of the town is the Bap- 
tist Church . . . and in at least seven other places 
in Italy preaching stations are maintained under the 
superintendence of Dr. Taylor. . . . These missions 
form an important part of the great work now in progress 
for the spread of evangelical religion in this land of Papal 
darkness. . . . Dr. Taylor is able to extend his 
missions, and multiply the number of laborers just as 
fast as he has the means of supporting them. And you 
may be certain that he is judicious, careful and wide- 
awake." 

From his arrival in Rome, Dr. Taylor had sought to 
find property suitable for a chapel and mission purposes. 
This was by no means easy to do. There are no vacant 
lots in Rome. To take an old house, tear it down and build 
a new structure may be a most costly undertaking. When 
one desires to build in Rome, the law requires him to go 
down to the original level of the city. Thus it may be 
necessary to excavate twenty or even as much as fifty 
feet. At last Dr. Taylor decided to purchase a house 
which could be remodelled, and given the appearance and 
form of a meeting-house. He wrote thus to the Board : 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 211 

"On March 17th, after much treating, I made a definite 
offer of 129,000 lire ($25,800) cash for the house in Via 
Teatro della Valle, which has been before us for more 
than a year. . . . April 30. Yesterday I drew on 
the Treasurer of the Board for $5,000 gold fifteen days 
after sight, and for $20,000 gold three months after 
sight. . . . By God's great mercy the affair seems 
happily terminated. ... I trust God will continue 
to smile upon us, giving us by the approaching autumn 
a complete chapel/' 

During the summer of 1878, which the family spent 
in the Waldensian Valleys, Dr. Taylor not only had the 
fearful anxiety, caused by the obstacles placed in the way 
of his completing the chapel by the Catholics, but was 
also called upon to pass through a serious illness. The 
summer brought one great joy — a family reunion, his 
older son returning for the vacation from America. The 
two letters which follow allude to these several incidents : 

"Lucerna — S. Giovanni, August 20th, 1878. My dear 
Brother : . . . I have been quite sick, and am slowly 
recovering my strength. My disease was inflammation 
of the bowels, and my sufferings were at times very great. 
I should be ashamed of crying out as I did, but I am 
conscious of bearing ordinary pain with fortitude, and 
Walter Scott tells in his letters how in great bodily agony 
he roared, so that he could be heard all over the place. 
For a short time my life was in peril, and the doctor 
said afterwards that one day he was afraid to return. 
The doctor is our dear Brother Laura, of Turin, 
a man of eminence in his profession, of whose baptism just 



212 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

two years ago I wrote the Herald. . . . For several 
days he gave up all to come and see me, and his kindness 
to me knew no bounds, treating me not only as a kind 
physician, but as an own brother might have done, con- 
stantly bringing something to promote my comfort, while 
at each visit he prayed fervently at my bedside. How 
tenderly I was ministered to by my dear family, and 
specially by my wife and by George, I need not, nor can 
I, tell you. I required constant attention, and it was never 
wanting. George is truly womanly in his sympathy, and 
in his gentle kindness. Mary took constant care of the 
children. ... I felt that my sick bed would have 
been a bad place to prepare to die. . . . It is likely 
that this attack has been long preparing, as for more than 
a year my system has not had its proper balance." 

"Lucerna — S. Giovanni, August 20th, 1878. My dear 
Sisters : Specially have I been anxious about 

our chapel in Rome, as I did not know what might be the 
issue of our difficulties ; but the Lord has heard prayer, 
and has been better to us than our fears. The refractory 
tenant we ejected by law. From the municipality we 
finally gained permission to make our projected improve- 
ment, though it was given most reluctantly and un- 
graciously, and only after our threat to appeal to the 
Parliament and King, and if necessary to the public 
sentiment of the world — and was at last hampered by 
onerous conditions. When our messenger would go before 
the city magnates they would cry out and wish that all 
the Protestant chapels were at an end, etc. But yesterday 
came the news of our greatest triumph. As you know, our 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 213 

neighbors got an injunction against us, and since the first 
day of June all our work in the pulpit and of the chapel 
has been stopped, leaving that end all exposed. I didn't 
know how long it might stay so, and what embarrassments 
and expenses I might encounter. Having employed two 
lawyers — one of them, Mancini, said to be the best lawyer 
in the civilized world — I had to wait as patiently as I could 
for the result. A few days ago I received printed copies 
of their argument, and it was so strong that my soul took 
courage. Yesterday came a letter from one of the lawyers 
saying that our victory is complete. The injunction is 
removed, we are entirely vindicated, our work can be at 
once resumed and pushed to completion, and our perse- 
cutors must pay the costs of the suit, and probably some 
damages. Thank God. There is yet a fourth trouble, 
but it is less important and I hope can be adjusted without 
serious difficulty." 

Dr. Tupper, in his report to the Convention in 1879, 
referring to the Rome Chapel said: 

"The chapel was dedicated in November. The opening 
exercises on the second day of that month were partici- 
pated in by all the ministers in Rome. Our evangelists 
continued for a week a nightly meeting in the chapel. The 
daytime was given to business conference. The organ of 
the Vatican referred to the dedication as the 'opening of 
an Infernal Hall.' Brother Taylor wrote: 'The chapel 
is beautiful, and with its furniture is exquisitely simple 
and neat.' The building is so constructed that it furnishes 
comfortable homes for Brother Taylor and Signor Cocorda 
and their families. There are rooms on the ground floor, 



214 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

which may be either rented or used for some purposes 
connected with the mission. The treasurer paid drafts 
for the chapel and improvements amounting to $31,838.26 
. making the difference to be provided for $4,- 
358.36." 

In the autumn of 1878 the Staunton Baptist Church, 
the Rev. Dr. Charles Manly being its pastor, celebrated its 
25th anniversary. Dr. Taylor, on September 17th, wrote 
a letter to be read on this occasion. The following are a 
few brief extracts from this letter: 

"Dear Brethren and Sisters — I can say with Paul in 
his letter to the Colossians : 'Though I be absent in the 
flesh, yet am I with you in spirit, joying and beholding 
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.' 
The years that are gone seem to shrink up, and 
your past history and mine, so long intertwined, is vividly 
before me. . . . In 1850-'51 I was teaching school in 
the County of Fluvanna and I was sent with General 
Cocke as a delegate to the State Temperance Convention 
in Staunton. The journey was made in General Cocke's 
carriage. During my stay in Staunton I was, with other 
delegates, hospitably entertained in the family of Mr. 
Donnaghe, and was much impressed by the gentle and 

active piety of Mrs. D , and her charity for all 

Christians. I thought that if she were a type of the 
Staunton people, that would be a most pleasant field of 
labor for a minister. 

"The meeting-house was to have been dedicated the first 
Sunday in October. But that was a stormy day. I felt 
desolate enough. Specially had I fears for a congregation, 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 215 

for* our own members did not exceed, if they reached, a 
dozen, and we had no outside adherents on whom I could 
count. I shuddered at the thought of preaching to empty 
benches. But God was better than my fears. On the 
second Sunday in October we had a very successful open- 
ing. Crowds gathered. I preached, in the morning, the 
dedication sermon from the text, 'Lord, I have loved the 
habitation of Thy house and the place where Thine honour 
dwelleth' ; and at night my introductory as pastor from the 
words, 'As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the 
gospel to you that are at Rome also,' little dreaming, by 
the way, that this was afterwards to be literally fulfilled 
in my history. 

"I close as I began. I am with you in spirit and will 
be when you hear these lines. Some day, I trust, if it be 
God's will, to greet you also in person. But I do not 
know how that will be. Nor is it very important. 

"Your affectionate brother in Christ, 

"George B. Taylor." 



CHAPTER VII 

First Visit to America — Death of Mrs. Taylor — Second Chaplaincy 
at University of Virginia 



the Being Beauteous 
Who unto my youth was given, 
More than all things else to love me, 
And is now a saint in heaven. 

— Longfellow. 

But thou and I have shaken hands, 
Till growing winters lay me low, 
My paths are in the fields I know, 
And thine in undiscover'd lands. 

— Tennyson. 

In view of the debt on the new Rome Chapel the Board 
requested Dr. Taylor to return to America for the purpose 
of raising the money. He heeded the call of his brethren 
and set out for the United States early in 1879. Besides 
attending that year the Southern Baptist Convention, the 
Northern anniversaries and the General Association of 
Virginia, at which gatherings he spoke, he made, among 
the churches, especially at the North, collections for the 
Rome Chapel. Upon the advice of Dr. John Staige Davis, 
who entertained Dr. Taylor at the June meeting, the 
Board requested him, in view of his very feeble health, to 
seek rest and not to return to Rome until the spring of 
1880. To rest seems to have been always hard for him, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 217 

and after some vacation in the Virginia mountains during 
the summer, the fall found him once again pleading for 
the chapel. His work was interrupted by the death of 
his sister, Mrs. A. E. Dickinson, who had been in frail 
health for some time. In the early part of 1880, with his 
family, Dr. Taylor turned his face towards Rome. As 
some evidence of the state of the work in Italy, notice the 
following list of the Italian evangelists working with Dr. 
Taylor at this time : Ferraris, Paschetto, Bellondi, Basile, 
Martinelli, Volpi, Cossu, Cocorda, and in the summer of 
1879 the Rev. J. H. Eager was appointed by the Board 
for Italy. It took a correspondent of no mean order to 
be able to write letters on a continental train, where our 
parlor cars, with all their conveniences, were then un- 
known. The following letter was headed: 

"Train for Turin, near Aix les Bains, France, April 
6th, 1880. I can write only with a pencil, and not very 
well at that, as the train dashes on through these lovely 
valleys and grand snow-clad mountains. . . . For a 
few days in London, Paris, and on the journey, I have been 
busy on my annual report, which I have just finished; 
twenty-five pages like this. The annual reports of all the 
evangelists met me in London. I do not know how it will 
go with me. I fear the Italian heat, which already seems 
to smite me." 

On a postal card, May 13th, 1880, from Rome, he writes 
to his brother Charles : 

" . . . I have. just returned from Naples, where 
I had rather a worrying time, but one magnificent three 
hours' drive, which is not surpassed by anything in the 



218 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

world — i. e., 'not as I nose on.' . . . Some important 
changes have to be made in our work, and they are giving 
me anxietv. But we both know I Peter v : 7, Phil, iv : 6-7. 
We have been, nearly ever since my reaching Rome, hold- 
ing a grand Union Protestant meeting, which has stirred 
up the public, certainly the little evangelical public, very 
much, and with good results. My own heart has been 
much encouraged. You will please write at once not a 
miserable postal like this, but a good long letter. . . ." 

On September 10th, 1880, he wrote to his brother 
Charles : 

" . . . My delicate health has kept me at home 
this summer. I have hardly been able to go, and have felt 
afraid, in my state, to go off alone to strange hotels. But 
with the cooler weather I shall hope to make some more 
trips, and when Eager comes we shall have a good time 
going together. . . . The Waldensian Synod is now 
holding here ... I have been praying for them, and 
try to put myself in their place." 

In a letter from Rome, March 8th, 1881, he says to his 
brother Charles : 

" . . . My late trip was pleasant, and I greatly 
enjoyed preaching, especially in some relatively new 
ground. But I suffered physically at the time, from cold, 
with no fires, and, after my return, succumbed to an un- 
usually severe attack from my old foe, rheumatism, which 
latterly has played in a most uncomfortable way in the 
regions of my heart. The London doctor consulted last 
spring said the heart would be my weak point." 



EEV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 219 

The next letter, to his brother Charles, is from Rome 
and dated April 22nd, 1881: 

" . . . I have just finished sending off forty 
letters, so you see I am rather tired of writing. I am also 
taking an active part in the establishment of a General 
Protestant Hospital in Rome, and this has absorbed much 
time." 

On June 28th, 1881, he wrote, from Bagni di Lucca, to 
his older son, a student at Richmond College: 

" . . Sunday, Mary and the children went to 

meeting (Episcopal Church), but after a long service, at 
some interval, came out, not knowing if there would be a 

sermon. We laughed at them very much. Mr. , 

one of the excellent of the earth, is very hard to hear, as 
he has some defect in his vocal organs. Dr. Gason in- 
formed me that there are many people here very high 
church, crossing themselves in church. He asked me to 
hold a weekly service, which I told him I would gladly 
do. I do not connect these two facts. . . . As it takes 
so long for letters to go and come I wish you to think 
early and write me about your University ticket. The 
only thing I am certain you ought to take is Junior 
Natural Philosophy. About that I have no doubt. Other 
things depend a good deal on your taste and plans. 
Greek would help you for your Seminary studies should 
you decide to go to the Seminary. Or would you choose 
German, which will be always a help to you on the Conti- 
nent? Or Junior Law as a part of a general liberal edu- 
cation ?" 

From a letter to his brother Charles, under date of Leg- 



220 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

horn, September 15th, 1881, the following extract is 
taken : 

" . . . I get books from London, receiving them 
by post. I have bought in all twenty volumes of English 
Men of Letters. I have read this summer Lives of Cowper, 
Landon, Goldsmith and Hawthorne, and have now on hand 
Chaucer, Pope and Shelley. The library at Bagni di 
Lucca is also very good. One of the books from it read 
by me was, 'Two Years Before the Mast.' I was induced 
to read it by the fact that the author, Mr. R. H. Dana, 
now an elderly man, was at the Bagni, and he and we 
exchanged calls. I have also read two of Thackeray's 
novels. I read very few novels and they first class. 
Thackeray's are such, and, rightly read, instructive and 
useful. 

"Nearly all of August I was away from home. It was 
a delight to have Susan with me — the greater that only 
recently has she felt able to leave the little ones. It was 
easier this time, as we have had with us this summer a 
very reliable young woman, member of our church in 
Rome, whom we took, partly from kindness, though she 
i helps in many ways. Travelling alone, and in such good 
company, I find very different. A week was spent in 
Torre Pellice, superintending the work, and attending to 
the business of our new chapel. Another week we were 
at Bologna and Modena. A third was spent at Finis- 
trelle, in the Alps. Finistrelle has a famous old fortress, 
the scene of Picciola, pronounced, by the way, with ac- 
cent on first syllable, and not on second, as one hears it 
generally. We also took from there a two days' jaunt 



EEV." GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 221 

higher still. The air was bracing, and I found great 
benefit from that week's trip, and yet I know that I should 
not have taken it but for the persistency of my wife, who 
is ever my good genius. 

"During our absence from home the startling and dis- 
tressing news of our dear sister Sally's death reached us. 
It was like thunder in a clear sky. My wife bears up 
heroically, but few can understand how much her sister 
was to her, and it is a heavy blow. It is so also to me, for 
not only was she so lovely in herself, but she was one of 
the few in this world to whom I felt very, very near. Her 
letters were regular and full of sympathy — like my 
mother's or Sister Fannie's. Her life for years has been 
a great struggle, but now she is at rest. . . . She took 
me and mine — all my family — to her heart. Father 
knew and loved her before I did. ... I am verv 
busy, specially preparing for our expected evangelists' 
meeting in Milan in a fortnight. I write letters till I 
feel like a writing machine. . . . My eyes lately 
have failed rapidly. I cannot use them at night. I have 
lately resorted to glasses and have them over my eyes 
and nose (bah ! ) at this moment. But my general health 
is improved." 

On October 6th, 1881, from Pinerolo, he wrote to his 
son George : 

"I am here, en route, for an hour or so, and can at least 
begin a letter to you. . . . We all came together on 
the 27th of September to Pisa, where we divided into three 
parties, Leonora to Rome, the family to Bagni di Lucca 
and I to Milano, to attend our General Eeunion of Evan- 



222 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

gelists. Said meeting convened on the 28th of September. 
I had arranged for all of us to lodge and eat together at 
one hotel, viz., Hotel Varese, a small but very nice hotel 
near the Duomo. This plan was carried into effect, except 
that I had a nice large room in the same house in which 
is Paschetto's new apartment. Three times a day we met 
at the same table and to excellent meals. Morning, cajfe 
e latte, pane e burro ; midday, antepasto, soup, two courses 
of meat, cheese or fruit; . . . night about the 
same. I enjoyed my meals, being pretty hard worked all 
the time, besides the walking to and fro. The discus- 
sions in the meetings were lively, sometimes stormy, and 
not always pleasant. . . . The following new com- 
bination was made : Cocorda, to Naples ; Colombo, to 
Milan, and Paschetto and Torre, to Pome. The latter 

(T ), who met the brethren for the first time, made 

a fine impression, both by his dignified and cordial 
manners, and by his eloquent discourse. I hope the new 
arrangement will do well, and specially that Pome may 
be blessed in the two new brethren that go there. Brother 
Eager took little part, but made a fine impression. To me 
it was first a fatiguing meeting, as for several nights I 
did not get to bed till the small hours of the night. Then 
it was an anxious time. I came out at the end feeling as 
if I had been in a mill. Finally, the weather was bad, a 
steady rain with a penetrating cold, for which neither my 
system nor my wardrobe was prepared, and, of course, with 
so much cold around I did not fail to take some. Behold 
my iliad of woes ! I was to have gone direct to Pome, 
but received a telegram from Messrs. Powan and Taylor 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 223 

(two Tennessee and Mississippi Baptist pastors, who have 
been travelling in Italy and the Orient) that they would 
meet me in Turin, and accompany me to see the Torre 
Pellice Chapel, etc. I was very anxious for them to see 
it, and Ferraris, believing that they would thereby be 
induced to raise us a good purse for that object. I 
reached the hotel in Turin last evening, and found that 
they (after waiting some hours) had given me up and 
gone, leaving for Paris fifteen minutes before the arrival 
of my train, which was forty minutes late. Phansy mi 
felins ! Being so near I decided to run up anyhow, and 
here I am. [This letter was finished at Torre Pellice, 
October 7th.] There is little more to tell. I came on here, 
yesterday, riding in the coupe. It was very cold. I got 
off at Ferraris' house, sending on my valise and wraps. 
Ferraris insisted I should remain with them all night, 
which I did, and if I missed some of the 'ease of mine 
inn,' I had other comforts in kitchen stove — a bed warmer 
(at least three gallons hot water in a large tin can), and 
specially the loving sympathy which I needed, and which 
was freely extended. The chapel has made much progress 
since your mother and I were Ijere. The campanile is 
done, and adds much to its beauty. The chambers over the 
chapel are very nice, commanding fine views. I only 
hope we shall get the money. God will provide.''' 

From Pome, November 3rd, 1881, he wrote to his son, 
a student at the University of Virginia: 

" . . . When the Paschettos came we tried to do 
a good part by them, having father, mother and three 
children to spend the entire day with us, coming to break- 



224 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

fast and remaining till late at night. The same day the 
entire Cocorda family dined with us, and then we accom- 
panied them (your mother, Mary and I) to the depot about 
ten at night, they (i. e., the Cocordas) leaving for their 
Naples home. Last Sunday we had all the Paschettos to 
dinner. Seldom for years have I heard so much children's 
noise as on these two occasions. My children are all 
getting to be young gentlemen and ladies. Perhaps I 
would more regret it, but I am nervous and disturbed 
by a great hubbub, more than when I was thirty or forty. 
You may have heard of the conversion of Conte 
Enrico Campello to Protestantism. He was Canon of 
St. Peter's. It has made a great stir. His autobiography 
is sold at all the stores and stalls, and has been reviewed 
in all the newspapers of Italy. For the last two days I 
have been reading it. It is certainly deeply interesting, 
giving one an inside view of Papal Rome. The view is 
not nattering, though he writes with moderation." 

The following is taken from a letter to the same son, and 
is dated Rome, December 8th, 1881 : 

" . Your mother holds her woman's meetings 

now on the premises. It is very convenient, having here 
a large spare room, which can be used for many such 
purposes." 

Dr. Taylor was "in journey ings often," and the follow- 
ing letter tells about one of his trips among the churches. 
It is dated Bologna, June 3rd, 1882 : 

" . . . I wrote to you from Torre Pellice a pretty 
full postal card. I left there last Monday at four in the 
a. m., and came without stopping to Modena — a hot, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 225 

terribly dusty run of twelve hours. I had the great 
pleasure of aiding in Torre Pellice in settling a difficulty 

between F and E (the principal members) 

which had long been a great stumbling block. I feel it 
a blessed thing to be a peacemaker. ... At Modena 
I made junction with Brother Eager, and we have been 
together since and will be for ten days longer. One day 
we were called at five, and with Martinelli went to Carpi, 
thence in carriage to S. Possidonio (ten miles), pausing 
half an hour for a short service at Rovereto. At S. P. 
we visited an aged and probably dying brother, but still 
full of energy and vim. A priest had intruded upon and 
was worrying him, but after a short contest was soon put 
to flight. We reached Carpi to dinner at 2 p. m. ; visited 
a sick sister in hospital; held services from 4.30 to 6; 
reached Modena quite tired, but happy in having done so 
good a day's work. . . . The most disagreeable part 
of the occasion for me was kissing quite a lot of brethren 
not much adapted to be kissed. Save the mark. 

"On reaching Bologna, we found the walls placarded 
concerning our coming, and we have had two fine, and I 
trust useful, meetings. The audiences were large and 
attentive. I have never heard Brother Eager speak be- 
fore, but really he is beginning to speak so as to interest 
and impress, despite mistakes and a restricted vocabulary. 
To-day Brother Basile and wife and daughter dine with 
us, and then at 5 p. m. we go to Venice." 

In the summer of 1882 his older son returned to Italy 
for a visit of a year, and was met in Berne by his father. 
Together they made a pleasant tour in Switzerland, visit- 



226 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ing Geneva, Lausanne, Interlaken, Lucerne, Zurich, 
Schaffhausen, and the Righi. Dr. Taylor had not been 
well and this little outing greatly refreshed him. He was 
a most delightful travelling companion, enthusiastic, re- 
sourceful and liberal in his planning. Rain seriously 
marred the views at the Righi, Lucerne and the Falls 
of the Rhine, but solace was found in books. At a kiosk 
in Lucerne a Tauchnitz copy of Mark Twain's "Tramp 
Abroad" was purchased, and many of the descriptions 
were all the more enjoyed because read on the spot. On 
the fifth floor of the Righi hotel, one read while the other 
watched the clouds, and when a rift gave the view of valley 
and snow-clad mountains, the book was closed and the 
fleeting panorama greedily feasted on. Dr. Taylor was 
much interested in the numerous fishermen on the Lucerne 
bridges, who seemed to fish unceasingly, and yet never 
were seen to catch anything; Mark Twain's story about 
"The Man Who Put up at Grigsby's" was very a propos. 
At Schaffhausen, as valises had been left in Zurich, the 
danger of catching cold from wet feet, after the tramp 
to the falls, was avoided — thanks to a little German shop 
where dry socks were purchased, and to the landlord who 
loaned big slippers while shoes were dried in the hotel 
kitchen. 

The following spring, after a winter in which all the 
family had been together, Dr. and Mrs. Taylor celebrated 
the twenty-fifth anniversary of their wedding. It was a 
quiet but very pleasant occasion. The children united 
in presenting to their parents some silverware, and along 
with it twenty-five white roses. During the summer of 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 227 

1883, spent at Bagni di Lucca, Dr. and Mrs. Taylor had 
the great pleasure of visits from their brother, the Rev. Dr. 
J. B. Taylor; their niece, Miss Janie T. Prichard; and 
Miss Maud Constant, an American friend. The circle at 
Casa Bertini that summer was a very happy one, and little 
did we dream that in less than a year the death angel 
would come with its shadow. The same summer Dr. 
Taylor, with several of the children, made a pedestrian 
trip to see the Eagers, who were staying near Pracchia, 
Mr. Eager returning with them for a visit to Casa Bertini. 
On this tramp, going through the long tunnel under the 
Apennines, with a man carrying a great torch, proved a 
thrilling experience. Anything that had adventure and 
romance appealed to Dr. Taylor. The following letter 
to his brother, under date of August 15th, alludes to this 
excursion : 

"We have had a very cool summer but it is now quite 
warm, though we manage to keep comfortable. We have 
plenty of vegetables, fruit, fresh butter, milk and eggs, 
though we cannot get them from our own cow and garden 
and poultry yard as you do. But I often feel like saying 
that as regards worldly goods 'I have all and abound ; I 
have need of nothing.' Spiritually, I usually feel 
straitened, but it is my own fault, since 'My God is able 
to supply every need according to His riches in glory in 
Christ Jesus.' I am now reading Life of MacCheyne and 
find it a truly charming book, specially stimulating to a 
minister. 

"Janie may have told you of our pedestrian excursion 
(part of it a la Mark Twain) to see Mr. Eager, and of his 



228 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

return, and of the presence in our household of an Italian 
evangelist. ... I only add that we are under the 
shadow of George's expected departure, specially as we 
can form no idea of when we may see him again." 

The Italian Mission never left Dr. Taylor any long 
period without some perplexing problem. Take for 
example the matter alluded to in the following letter from 
Rome. Signor Cocorda had been in Rome and then in 
Naples : 

" To-day I had Sunday school ; then the usual morn- 
ing meeting ; baptism ; then a somewhat painful church 
meeting. Signor Cocorda has embraced the doctrine of 
'Conditional Immortality/ and the Board has decided 
(as they were obliged to do) that they could not support 
him to preach the annihilation of the unbelieving after 
death (or the judgment). For several months the thing 
has given me trouble and anxiety. I sent the Board the 
correspondence on which they based their action. To- 
day, being about to leave, I presented the Board's de- 
cision to the church. One of the brethren specially, who 
had partly imbibed the doctrine in question, spoke very 
severely. But I was enabled to answer with warmth, 
without transcending due limits, and several of the 
brethren sustained me and the Board, and then that 
brother retracted what he had said. I trust all may be 
overruled for good. We have just, by the Board's per- 
mission, appointed, as our evangelist, Brother Nicholas 
Papengouth, a graduate of Spurgeon's College, and 
hitherto laboring with his father in Naples. 

"To-night I preached on counting the cost before be- 



KEV. GEORGE BOARD MAN TAYLOR, D. D. 229 

ginning to build a tower, and am just up from the service, 
dead tired." 

For several years the family spent part of each Septem- 
ber in Leghorn, where, for a most modest cost, delightful 
bathing was enjoyed. Italians leave the seaside by the 
calendar rather than according to the weather. So the 
31st of August sees an exodus, though the bathing may 
continue fine for weeks. Dr. Taylor wrote to his son from 
Leghorn, September 24th, 1883 : 

" . . For a couple of days we have been ad- 

miring the waves breaking on the rocks, and throwing up 
their beautiful spray, and the same time suffering the 
inconvenience of the wind banging blinds, breaking win- 
dows, and filling our eyes with dust. Fortunately there 
was no rain ; on the contrary, bright sunshine all the time. 
We lost no bath except yesterday, when we would not 
have bathed anyhow. To-day all is calm again and the 
bathing very pleasant. . . . Yesterday Miss Con- 
stant, Janie, the children and I went to church, morning 
and evening. The latter service was on Anchor Line 
steamship 'Olympia.' I followed the sermon in a short 
exhortation and prayer. It was quite romantic — the trip ; 
and it was 9.30 p. m. when we reached home. I enjoyed 
both sermons yesterday. The text at night was: 'A man 
shall be a hiding place from the storm.' 9} 

The following letter to his wife gives an account of a 
visit to Torre Pellice. It is dated Turin, October 9th, 
1883: 

"In my last I mentioned meeting Brother James in 
this city. The next morning, i. e., Friday morning, he and 



230 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

I went first to Pinerolo and then to Torre Pellice. At 
Pinerolo we remained five or six hours, and though 
neither Ferraris nor his family was at home, we passed a 
pleasant time walking about, and at a restaurant, talking, 
writing, seeing. Happily it was a glorious day, with 
bright sunshine and bracing air, so that it was a luxury 
to be out of doors. We also found much to interest in an 
extensive cavalry exercise in a field kept for that pur- 
pose. All the mountains around were covered with snow 
which glistened in the sunshine. We had taken third- 
class tickets, but as a large number of youth from Torre 
Pellice and vicinity had come to Pinerolo to 'draw' for 
the army, and were returning hilarious and uproarious, 
we fled to second class. We reached Torre Pellice about 
dark, and got a large double-bedded room in the Orso. 
Early the next morning I went, before breakfast, to find 
the contractor, and let him know that I was ready to 
settle. It was arranged that he and Signor Cocorda should 
meet me later at the hotel. While Brother James and I 
were enjoying our caffe e latte, fresh eggs and grissini, in 
walked Signor Basile (!) just from Naples. 
After breakfast we three, and soon after with Signor 
Cocorda also, proceeded to inspect the chapel and apart- 
ment. . . . The enclosure is very neat and adds 
much to the general effect. A wall is surmounted by an 
iron railing, and there are two iron railing gates, one for 
the chapel and the other for the apartment. We then 

returned to see about a settlement. Signor C had 

failed to make a contract, and between him and the con- 
tractor there was complete contradiction. . . . But I 



EEV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 231 

made the best settlement I could and had no worry, having 

already had it for a month before. Signor C , Basile, 

James and I dined together. One dish was chamois, for 
which James and I agreed we should never hanker. 

Afterwards we went up to Signor C 's and ate grapes. 

. By Sunday morning Signor Paschetto and Signor 
Ferraris were on hand. ... I preached at the morn- 
ing service, which was largely attended, and after opening 
services delivered a somewhat lengthy address of explana- 
tion as to what had occurred, the state of things, and the 
plans for the future. I spoke in Italian and got through 
very satisfactorily with a duty which I had much dreaded. 
Brother Paschetto interpreted in French that all might 
understand. I then introduced Basile, who said a few 
words. Then we were going to sing and have addresses 
from Paschetto and Ferraris, when lo ! and behold 
Monsieur Peterval [a harmless but half -crazy man] rose 
and began to speak. I tried to get him to cease, but he 
became very much excited, and very rude, and seemed 
ready to strike me ; others tried to silence him, but he had 
his way and said his say. Afterwards, however, he begged 
my pardon in the presence of the congregation, and at the 
close of the meeting hugged and kissed me before all ! 
After him, the other brethren spoke, including Signor 
Cocorda. ... In the p. m. we had a meeting of the 
brethren of the church in which some disagreeable things 
were said, and a bad spirit was manifested. 
Paschetto helped me very much. ... It was a try- 
ing meeting and gave me much pain. ... I leave all 
in God's hands. . . . It was a mercy that we had fine 



232 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

weather at Torre Pellice, and Brother James was great 
company, and a great comfort to me. We came yesterday 

by the earliest train to this place, and Brother J went 

directly on to Paris." 

Miss Janie T. Prichard, Dr. Taylor's niece, returned 
to Rome with her uncle's family to spend the winter with 
them ; and Miss Constant, who has been mentioned already, 
was also in Rome the whole winter. 

In March, very suddenly a great affliction befell Dr. 
Taylor and his children. After an illness of only a day 
or two Mrs. Taylor died early on the morning of March 
7th, 1884. The same day Dr. Taylor wrote to his older 
son, a student at the Southern Baptist Theological Semi- 
nary, Louisville, Ky. : 

"O my dear son, how can I tell you the sad, dreadful 
truth — may God help you to bear it — your precious mother 
left us this morning. We will see her no more below, 
but above, where hearts never ache as mine does now, and 
as yours reading these lines. My heart aches specially 
for you. And in all my prayers in these terrible hours 
and days I have remembered you. What you feared might 
come has come. But it has not come without God's will- 
ing it. I know no real comfort in such a moment save 
that. May we both say what Jesus said in Gethsemane : 
'Not my will, Father, but Thine be done.' This is our 
hour of agony. An angel — yea, the Holy Spirit, will come 
to sustain us. Not only the event, but all its details, we 
know that He who is infinite in wisdom and tenderness 
has wisely and kindly ordered, however dark all now 
seems to us. I will now try to tell you everything as 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 233 

best I can. Monday p. m. I had to go to a meeting of 
Evangelical Alliance Committee and proposed to your 
mother to ride out and take the children ; which she did, 
and said on returning that she had enjoyed the ride so 
much. She did not think she took cold on the ride, but 
that night felt cold and chilly, and hastened to bed. The 
next day she sat up in bed and sewed, partly I think on a 
dress for Janie but principally in finishing a pair of 
slippers which she had been making for you to send to 
you by Janie. . . . Wednesday morning your mother 
said she had slept badly or not at all. Difficult respira- 
tion. ... In the meantime she had begun to suffer 
more with her throat, and, as the doctor was slow coming, 
I administered a mild emetic on my own responsibility, 
which gave her decided relief. . . . Dr. Gason came 
again at 11, i. e., Wednesday night, and for the first time, 
as far as I know, pronounced the symptoms grave. I 
went off to rest, being very tired, but I felt too sad to 
sleep much. . . . They decided to call Professor 
Mazzoni, a most eminent surgeon, who came immediately, 
and performed the operation known as tracheotomy — cut- 
ting the windpipe. Your mother accepted it with the 
courage and fortitude which were so peculiarly hers — 
indeed she said, ' Anything to relieve me and to save my 
life/ The operation succeeded and considerable relief 
was secured. ... At five they called us and we went 
with Spotswood. In half an hour or less she breathed 
her last. The death was perfectly peaceful, which but 

for the operation it could not have been. Dr. G 

and Mrs. Adams said up to a few moments before that 



234 LIFE AND EETTEBS OF 

they thought she was doing well, even improving. 
It hurt her to speak. But often she signed . . . and 
again and again she gave an expressive smile. The last 
audible words were 'Pray for me/ and before the operation 
she said, 'Jesus will help me.' . . . Our brethren 
and sisters loved her and admired her, and she loved them. 
I commenced this this morning and now finish 
at 7.30 p. m. I have been interrupted scores of times 
and have had so many things to think of and attend to. 
Part of the day I have been overwhelmed, but part I am 
strangely calm. I walk in a dream. 

Mrs. Taylor's death was tragic in its suddenness, and 
the grief among Italian evangelicals and English and 
Americans in Pome was deep and general. A corre- 
spondent of the American Register, a secular paper, said: 

"Mrs. Taylor's death was quite sudden and unexpected, 
and outside of her own family the community of English 
and Americans and other Protestant Christians at Pome 
will sadly miss one who was beloved by all who knew her." 

With that unselfishness which characterized him, Dr. 
Taylor wrote long and promptly to his son far away the 
most minute details concerning these days of sorrow, and 
his letters overflowed with the tenderest love and most 
childlike faith in God. Pages would not suffice to give 
all the matchless letters which Dr. Taylor wrote at this 
time even to his son ; but space forbids, and, moreover, into 
the sacred place of such a sorrow, perhaps none save the 
nearest and dearest ought to go. For the children these 
letters are "a possession forever," and to the beautiful 
life and lovely character of their mother give a halo and a 



REV. GEORGE BOARD MAN TAYLOR, D. D. 235 

benediction. The line from Milton on her tombstone gives 
some idea of what she was to her husband, her children, 
her loved ones, her friends, all who knew her: 

"Love, sweetness, goodness in her person shined." 

On March 28th, 1884, Dr. Taylor wrote to his older son : 

"It is three weeks this morning since our beloved one 
went home. ... I can hardly tell you how I have 
gotten on, so varied have been my experiences. The be- 
reavement is hardly ever absent from me for any length 
of time, but often it does not seem a real thing, but only 
a dark, dreadful dream from which I have awakened. At 
other moments the sense of desolation is overpowering, and 
then again my heart simply hungers for her. 
You are remembered by us many times a day, and I 
believe by many others. Luther said three things make a 
minister: prayer, temptation and affliction. And Paul, in 
the beginning of his second letter to the Corinthians, tells 
how we receive comfort that we may be able to comfort 
others. I remember hearing a sermon from Dr. Reynolds 
when I was a boy, on the text 'It is good for a man to bear 
the yoke in his youth.' It was a beautiful and excellent 
sermon and made an impression on me which I have not 
yet forgotten. . . . Mary is unselfish and efficient, 
just like her mother. She and Janie are a great blessing." 

Upon Mrs. Taylor's death Miss Janie T. Prichard gave 
up her purpose of returning to America in order to help 
in Dr. Taylor's home, with the children and in the house- 
keeping. 



236 LIFE AND LETTEES OF 

On April 18th, 1884, from Home, Dr. Taylor wrote to 
his son: 

" . . . Be sure, my dear George, I mean to take 
care of myself. I rise earlier, . . . bathe partially 
with cold water, study and write at a high desk, and mean 
to try to live, as far as it depends on me. And delicate 
people sometimes do live on in spite of their frailties. 
The great thing is to live right and to be ready to go. 
Sometimes my loneliness and depression are over- 
powering, but I have resolved to go on bravely and do my 
work as best I can, with God's help." 

From Turin, May 10th, 1884, Dr. Taylor wrote to his 
son. ~No formal good was accomplished by the Florence 
meeting described in this letter : 

" . . . Monday, April 29th, I went to Florence 
to attend an assembly called by our Intermissionary Com- 
mittee to consider if the denominations could get nearer 
together either in spirit, or form, or both (and cooperate 
on certain works), and to promote the same. Mr. Eager 
and I stayed at Hotel Cavour, a much finer house than I 
had intended to patronize. However, I ate only two meals 
there, and they were simple ones. The entire Assembly 
dined together every day at one o'clock, some kind lady 
having provided the means. Besides, I dined one even- 
ing at Mr. McDougall's, where all is elegant. The meet- 
ings were very pleasant and, I believe, useful, and that 
steps were taken which must bring about a closer union, 
in fact if not in form. I enjoyed much the good fellow- 
ship, and the diversion of mind into new and less painful 
channels of thought. . . . But I must mention one 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 237 

incident of the Florence days. An American gentleman, 
member of Mr. McDougall's church, was ill, and he (Mc- 

D ) asked Mr. Eager and myself to go and see him, 

which, of course, we gladly did and found him sitting up 
and alone, but in great pain and needing help. An un- 
successful operation had been performed. We stayed some 
little time, doing what we could. He seemed full of plans 
and hopes, though a pious man, but the cold, cold sweat 
on his brow made me feel that he was dying. I begged 

Mr. McD to send help, and it was done, as had been 

already arranged, and early in the morning he died. 

"We had expected to install Nicholas Papengouth in 
Milan Sunday, but he arrived too late. . . . Last 
Monday I came to Turin. Tuesday I spent at the Exposi- 
tion. The display is fine, but it was a sad day, many 
things conspiring to give me a fresh sense of my great 
loss. Wednesday the meeting of our evangelists came off. 
We were in session from 9.30 a. m. to nearly midnight, 
with brief intervals of rest. The services were pleasant, 
and I trust good was done. We agreed on a plan for 
insuring the lives of evangelists for the benefit of their 
widows and orphans. It was also arranged, with our 
approval, for the appointment of a committee to cooperate 
with Mr. Eager and myself in the management of affairs. 
Thursday and Friday (yesterday) the Baptist Union was 
in session, and a good spirit prevailed, and many things 
were set on foot ; among others a periodical for the defense 
of Baptist principles, some four hundred lire being sub- 
scribed to start it, also a Baptist hymn-book. It was 



238 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

encouraging to see twenty-five Baptist ministers engaged, 
and with so much zeal and good feeling, in planning for 
future work. I trust that there is a better, brighter day 
for the evangelicals — yes, and for the Baptists of Italy. " 

The next letter, while written from Rome, concerns a 
visit to Torre Pellice on the same trip referred to above. 
It is to his son: 

" . . . I spent Lord's Day in Torre Pellice. 
. . . I attended two services at our chapel and spoke 
at one. . . . The congregations were very encourag- 
ing. ... At present Signor O. C not only holds 

numerous preaching services, but is trying to form a 
church on the basis of Conditional Immortality and 
Sabbatarianism. ... I have been thinking for 
several days of to-day, the 13th of May and the twenty- 
sixth anniversary of our wedding. One year ago, she 
and you and all of us celebrated the silver wedding. 
Ah! how little we dreamed what would come before 
another year. How fresh is my vision of her as, twenty- 
six years ago to-day, she came in her youthful, virginal 
loveliness 'as a bride prepared for her husband.' I 
always admired her, and to me, in her better moments, she 
had all her girlish beauty. As I passed Pisa last night 
at midnight, I remembered my parting with her last 
October ; her eyes were so beautiful and tender and beam- 
ing with love, that it deeply affected me, and I wrote 
her of it in my first letter. I did appreciate her, yet now 
I feel that were she back again I should appreciate her 
even more. Alas ! mine now is to be but a maimed life, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 239 

but God forbid tbat I should murmur. I have you and 
the dear children. I remember so well when each was 
born, and gather each of you afresh to my heart. And 
Jesus is precious though I know that He might be more 
to me than He is. Alas for my poor, sinful heart !" 

His letters described not only all his own life but 
touched with helpfulness the lives of those to whom he 
wrote, especially his nearest and dearest. It is simply 
impossible to give all the words of wise and loving counsel 
he addressed to his children, but the following to his son, 
who was preparing for the ministry, must not be left out : 

" . . . I wish to beg you, while doing your work 
faithfully, to avoid worry. This last does not glorify God 
or add to one's usefulness, but the reverse, while it does 
drain fearfully one's vital energies. May you be able to 
combine the greatest earnestness with a heart at rest in 
the attributes and promises of God. ... I remember 
a prayer of your mother's, that we might so commit 
everything to God as to feel a sweet carelessness as to 
results. It impressed me as equally just and beautiful, 
and though she used the expression more than a dozen 
years ago it is fresh in my memory. . . . Do not 
take your life hard. Preach and visit in humble depend- 
ence on the divine guidance, and confident of His life- 
giving blessing upon your work." 

In the summer of 1884, Dr. Taylor, carrying out a plan 
he and his wife had thought of, wrote to Dr. John A. 
Broadus, saying that he would be willing to go for two 
years to the University of Virginia, as chaplain, if the 



240 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

faculty cared to have him fill that place. The following 
extracts, in regard to this matter, explain themselves: 

"The University of Virginia, 

"June 24th, 1884. 
"Rev. G. B. Taylor, D. D., 

"Dear Sir and Brother : On learning a week or two ago 
that you would probably be willing to become our 
University chaplain at the next term, I took the liberty 
of consulting with several of my colleagues about it and, 
having their approval, I laid the matter before the faculty 
at their last meeting. Although far in advance of the 
usual time for an election, they at once embraced the 
opportunity, and you were formally elected chaplain for 
the ensuing term with a cordiality and a unanimity that 
could not possibly be surpassed, and I was authorized to 
communicate the fact to you, asking for a definite response 
when it may suit your convenience. The prospect of 
having you with us, and in this intimate relation, is a 
matter of general congratulation. . . . Will you 
allow me to add that amidst the general congratulation 
there is a deep note of sorrow that you return alone. 
Every one says, 'Alas that Mrs. Taylor is not to be with 
us too !' For myself and my wife it is a special source of 
sorrow, for we learned not only to admire but also the 
easy lesson to love her, and our hearty sympathies are 
with you in your great loss. You will not be less welcome 
to our hearts and homes, and I pray God to direct and 
bless your coming. . . . 

"Truly your friend and brother, 

"Noah K Davis." 



EEV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 241 

Dr. Taylor replied: 

"Lucerna — S. Giovanni, Italy, 

"July 13th, 1884. 
"Prof. N. K. Davis, 

"University of Virginia. 
"My dear Sir and Brother: I have received your kind 
letter of June 24th, communicating the action of the 
faculty of the University of Virginia, electing me chap- 
lain for the next term. It will give me great pleasure to 
accept the position, and as soon as I receive the consent of 
the Foreign Mission Board, which I have no doubt will 
be cheerfully given, I shall send my formal acceptance. 
I was aware that the next term does not begin till October, 
1885, but in writing to Dr. Broadus of my willingness 
to have my name mentioned in connection with the chap- 
laincy, I did not anticipate so prompt action. Besides, I 
desired that, if elected, it might be without rivalry, as 
my relation to Southern Baptist ministers is delicate and, 
moreover, I wished time in order to consult the Foreign 
Mission Board and make needed arrangements, and to 
leave ample opportunity for selecting another chaplain 
in case I could not go. I heartily thank the faculty for 
the exception made in my case of an early election, and 
also for the cordiality with which it was made. My own 
feeling for the University of Virginia has always been 
a blending of admiration and affection, and to be its chap- 
lain is for me both an honor and a privilege. 
Yes, it will be unutterably sad to return home without 
my wife, but it is unutterably sad to remain here or 
indeed to live at all without her. . . . One comfort 



242 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

in going home will be that I shall be carrying out her 
wishes in regard to our children, who in every way need 
the change. I have no other plan than after filling my 
term to return to Italy and end my days here. I cannot 
sufficiently thank you for your kindness in the matter." 

Dr. Taylor wrote to Dr. Tupper, the corresponding 
secretary of the Foreign Mission Board: 

"My dear Brother: It was the conviction of my wife 
and myself that a prolonged visit of our family to the 
United States was desirable, specially in view of the 
physical, intellectual and social needs of our children. 
We also thought that it might be a wise and desirable 
arrangement, both as regards the Board and ourselves, 
for me to accept, if appointed, the next Baptist chaplaincy 
at the University of Virginia. As these needs were at 
least not diminished by the death of my wife, I wrote in 
the latter part of May to Dr. John A. Broadus, authorizing 
him, if as a friend of the Foreign Mission Board and of 
the University of Virginia he thought well of it, to mention 
my name as next Baptist chaplain. I have now the honor 
of enclosing a copy of Professor Davis's letter informing 
me of my election, and a copy of my own letter expressing 
my desire to accept the position, provided the Board 
consent. I trust the Board will see no obstacle in the 
way. If they do, I am quite ready heartily to renounce 
the project. Should the way be open, my plan would 
be to have leave of absence without salary, say for twenty 
or twenty-four months, with the understanding that at the 
end of the time I return to Italy, unless some grave reason 
interpose, affecting either the Board or myself. . . . 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 243 

Confiding implicitly in the wisdom and love of the Board, 
I submit the matter without other words." 

As will be seen from what follows, the plan for the 
return to the United States and the University of Virginia 
was in due time carried out. The summer of 1884 was 
spent in the Waldensian Valleys, Miss Prichard still 
being one of the little circle. During the summer a pen- 
written paper, called "The Holiday Herald," was issued 
from week to week, and, besides other things, contained the 
poems and essays and stories which were submitted in 
contests for prizes offered by first one and then another. 
Dr. Taylor entered most enthusiastically into this plan, 
which proved profitable to the young people, and pleasant 
for all. Early in the fall Mary, the older daughter, went 
to Leipsic, Germany, to spend the winter in study, and 
Dr. Taylor's niece returned with him and the family to 
Rome, to take charge of the housekeeping and look after 
the children. The next letters show Dr. Taylor en route 
for the United States, and the University of Virginia. 
During Dr. Taylor's absence in America, Dr. Eager had 
charge of the Italian work. 

On July 7th, 1885, Dr. Taylor wrote from 11 Charter- 
house Square, London, to his brother James: 

"... After a pleasant week in Leipsic, varied 
by a day in Dresden, and a not important attack of sick- 
ness, I came on with my trio, visiting the haunts of 
Goethe, Schiller and Luther. A few hours were given 
to Weimar, where the two former lived, and a couple of 
days (one being Lord's Day) to Eisenach and the Wart- 
burg. Then we came here by way of Frankfort, the Rhine, 



244 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Cologne, Brussels and Antwerp. To afford this, we took 
to Dresden, and as far as Cologne, third-class trains and 
third-class hotels, which in Germany are very inexpensive, 
while often we simply picnicked in the train or in third- 
class waiting rooms on sandwiches. All this is rather to 
my taste, though the railroading in third class is rather 
fatiguing. We had a goodly number of heavy bundles 
to carry and deposit, and we must often have presented 
a queer, not to say ridiculous, appearance. . . . We 
are at a very quiet little place down town, within four or 
five minutes of the roar of the metropolis, and yet as 
secluded as if in the depths of a forest. In front is a 
little park or square, open only to those living or stopping 
on this square. This p. m. a policeman let us in and let 
us out. Altogether I have found the trip thus far a 
pleasure and a minister to health, giving, as it does, change 
of scene and a relief from consuming care. ... I 
met old Mr. Cook* to-day. He has here his American 
pastor, as he calls him, Dr. Walker, of Philadelphia, 
whom, with his wife, he is treating to a second trip to and 
over Europe. ... I hope to hear Spurgeon on Sun- 
day." 

On the Anchor Line steamship "Anchoria," July 31st, 
1885, he wrote to his brother Charles: 

"... Spotswood and I ran to catch a train for 
Ayr. Arrived there we found an open 'bus into which 
the people crowded, and we followed, asking no questions. 
After half an hour's run over a rolling, open country, with 



*Thos. Cook, originator of Cook's Tours, etc. 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 245 

extensive views, we were set down in a spot, to me one of 
the most interesting in the world — the more so as I had 
just re-read the life of the poet. We were surrounded 
by the thatched one-story cottage where he first saw the 
light, the school house, 'Alloway's auld haunted kirk,' the 
banks and braes of bonnie Doon (bonny indeed it was, and 
they are), and the Brig o' Doon over which Tarn fled for 
his life. All of these were inspected. . . . Then we 
got from a room added to Burns's house some scones for 
myself and for Spotswood, and a hot mutton pie, which 
he declared to be the best thing he had ever tasted. 
My last day before leaving London was given to visiting 
Oxford according to a sometime cherished wish and plan. 
It was a pity the time was so short — far too short to see 
properly that quiet, splendid, historic city, but imperfect 
as was my view enough was seen to give me a conception 
wnich no book or picture could give me. . . . The 
train to London was a fast one, and took us there without 
stopping, a distance of seventy-five miles or thereabouts. 
. A charming episode was meeting Edward Judson, 
who came and spent an evening with me. Few men are 
there whom I love and admire so much." 

Upon reaching America the little party spent a few days 
in Baltimore; a few days with kin folks at Newport 
News and Wake Forest, and then arrived at the Univer- 
sity of Virginia. 

From the University, Dr. Taylor wrote, September 28th, 
1885, to his brother Charles. He refers to Rev. Dr. J. 
B. Turpin, for many years pastor of the First Baptist 
Church of Charlottesville: 



246 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

"... A week ago to-day we all landed here in 
the rain and mud. ... It was a little depressing. 
. We have a good servant. Spotswood goes to Mr. 
Brock at Midway and Susy to a private school at Mrs. 
Staige Davis's; many friends have called with kindest 
words, and in a word we feel that we are launched on 
our life here. My health and strength have improved, 
and I hope I will get on, though I feel some 
anxiety as to the sermons. My sermon for next Sunday 
morning I have written out but am dissatisfied with it. 
Text, II Cor. iv: 7. Yesterday in the absence of Turpin 
I preached at Baptist Church, Charlottesville, and pre- 
sided at the Lord's Supper. I also addressed the Sunday 
school on Italian missions. In the p. m. I made pastoral 
visits, one to Professor Wheeler, who was thrown from 
his Kentucky horse the day after our arrival, and is laid 
up with a dislocated shoulder, all alone, his wife being 
in the North. . . . We are greatly enjoying George's 
presence, and regret that he must go away so soon. Alas ! 
such is life. He has preached the last two Sundays in 
Staunton. My own stay there was an ovation, and I 
greatly enjoyed meeting and preaching to my old friends 
and brethren, though memories sad and tender thronged 
me." 

One letter refers to a barrel of Albemarle pippins he 
had shipped to his brother Charles ; another barrel went 
to Louisville, to his son. This as an illustration of how he 
was constantly making handsome, thoughful, loving 
presents! Few men ever did more for others with the 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 247 

same amount of money. He was an excellent financier 
and it was his joy to give to others. 

On October 29th, 1885, he wrote to his brother James: 
" . Why have / not written sooner? because 

overwhelmed with work, and for five days past with 
neuralgia pains, fever et id omne genus, which have kept 
me in bed, and which last Sunday compelled closing the 
chapel to my immense disgruntlement, and I haven't been 
out since, and almost fear for next Sunday. 
James Dickinson and Carter Jones and a Baptist student 
named Cox, from Georgia, have been very kind in supply- 
ing my place at morning prayers." 

During Dr. Taylor's two years at the University he 
was never strong, and a number of times was confined to 
his bed by attacks more or less sharp. He felt the 
severity of American winter weather, yet on the whole 
the visit helped him physically. The luxury of an 
abundance of milk and vegetables he greatly enjoyed. In 
November 1885 he attended a farewell missionary meet- 
ing which was held at the First Church, Richmond, and 
made the principal address, speaking especially to the 
young men who were setting out for China. 

In the spring of 1886 Mr. Moody was at the Univer- 
sity, and made a deep impression upon the students and 
faculty. After he left meetings were kept up, and Dr. 
Taylor speaks of the blessed revival with which the com- 
munity was visited. The following May he attended the 
Southern Baptist Convention in Montgomery, was elected 
one of the vice-presidents and made an address on Italian 
Missions which surprised many, who had thought of him 



248 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

as very sober and matter of fact, by its fine play of wit 
and humor. During the summer of 1886 a Hebrew 
summer school was held at the University of Virginia ; 
a number of distinguished Hebrew scholars came together, 
Dr. W. R. Harper being the most famous of them all. 
Naturally such a gathering was greatly enjoyed by Dr. 
Taylor, and the social features were prominent, as a 
summer school cannot be very strenuous, since even at the 
base of the Blue Ridge the mercury mounts uncomfortably 
high. During his chaplaincy Dr. Taylor gave considerable 
time and thought to the enterprise (initiated and made 
successful by Rev. Otis T. Glazebrook), which resulted 
in the erection of the Gothic chapel now used. 

In the spring of 1887, upon Dr. Taylor's invitation, the 
Rev. Dr. Edward Judson spent a week at the University 
of Virginia, preaching in a series of meetings. His ser- 
mons attracted very large crowds of students, and great 
good was done. In the fall of 1887, according to his 
plan and purpose, Dr. Taylor, after brief visits to Chapel 
Hill, where his two sons were, one as pastor, the other 
as student, and to Wake Forest, turned his face towards 
Rome. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Home Life — Mission Affairs — Chapels Dedicated — Trips to Sicily 

Sardinia, Switzerland 



O'er all the Italian fields where still doth sway 
The Triple Tyrant, that from these may grow 

A hundredfold, who having learnt thy way 
Early may fly the Babylonian woe. 

— Milton. 



November (1887) found Dr. Taylor and his daughters 
once more in Rome. The first years in Rome the family 
had lived in their own hired house, a different one each 
winter, and then for some years they had dwelt in the 
apartment over the chapel, on Via Teatro Valle. Now 
that apartment was occupied by Signor Paschetto, the 
evangelist, and the Taylor trio took up their abode at 
52 Via Giulio Romano. This is in many respects as 
desirable a place as can be found in Rome. The windows 
look out upon the steps of the Ara Coeli Church (where 
Gibbon conceived the plan of writing the Decline and Fall 
of the Roman Empire), and the square of the Capitol, 
with its famous equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. 
The large open space all around gives every room save 
one that wealth of sunshine, which is so necessary in 
Rome, yet which, by reason of the narrow streets, in 
many a house is unknown. This was to be Dr. Taylor's 



250 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

last earthly habitation; in view of this fact some words, 
in the letter which follows, addressed to his brother 
Charles, take on a double interest : 

"Behold my permanent address and me settled again 
in my 'own hired house' in Rome — well, not perfectly 
settled . . . but comfortable in the feeling that like 
Noah's dove we have found a resting place for the sole 
of our feet after our flight over the great waters. Per- 
haps God does not mean for his children to be too well 
settled in this world. ... It has always been a 
theory of mine that every properly constituted family is 
complete in itself and that while 'men (or women) may 
come and men (or women) may go' and be welcome while 
there, the home is quite able to get on of itself. 
Our stay has been marked by a deal of rainy, dark, dismal 
weather (now it is glorious), and by one of my attacks, 
this time not visceral merely, but a land seasickness last- 
ing all night, and leaving me weak and miserable for days 
after. However, as usual, I have come up like a cork, and 
am O. K. (all kork). But I know that some day I shall 
not 'come up.' This house has some disadvantages. 
But the house is flooded with sunshine, I mean 
by day, and when it is not raining. And who can expect 
everything to combine in a house till he gets the one 'not 
made with hands' ? . . . We are making some skir- 
mishes towards getting fixed, and Mary is a treasure 
worth her weight in gold. . . . Our reception by 
friends here, of various nationalities, could hardly have 
been kinder." 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 251 

On February 29th, 1888, he wrote to his brother 
Charles : 

"Last Sunday was a day to be marked with a white 
stone, as it was the first day for about a fortnight that I 
went out of the house. . . . Though I went out Sun- 
day it was not thought best for me to go to our chapel, 
which is cold and damp, so I walked to the Palace of the 
Caesars, and there read your and other letters which the 
porter handed me as I passed his den. On other days 
there is a franc for admission to the Palatine Hill, but on 
Sunday there is no charge. I, of course, would not go 
there sight-seeing, but do not think it wrong to go as I 
would to any other green, quiet place. I have had a 
bronchial attack, and have played the part of the man 
in the story who could not get warm. It is a strange 
and to me rather inexplicable as well as painful ex- 
perience. And yet Sunday I found the sun hot, and my 
overcoat oppressive. It was the first bright day for many 
days. We have had a most trying winter, severe cold or 
continual rain. Now comes March, dangerous from the 
contrast between the hot sun and chilling winds. 

"For two years I, too, got up early and sallied forth 
to morning prayers, and rather enjoyed it, but for some 
time I have been rising late. Rome is a great place for 
sleep, and it seems hard for me to get enough. Mary and 
Susy are very good to me, and give me all the petting I 
will take, and I take all I can get. Our servant leaves 
before the third meal of the day and Mary and Susy 
prepare that, and as I am reading or writing, in walks 
one of them with a cup of cocoa, and a slice of brown 



252 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

bread. Each time it is a surprise, and I feel as if I were 
in fairyland. For some time I have not been able to 
take my meals in the cold dining room. The Baroness 
Bunsen well says that Borne, with its climate and with 
the way the houses are built, is no place for a delicate 
person. For the first time since I came here in 1873 I 
have thought this winter of making some change. But it 
has not been a very serious thought, nor do I know what 
change could be made. Besides, this has been a very ex- 
ceptionally trying winter, and, after all, one does not know 
how much of his sufferings may be due to place and how 
much to his own health, which would not be strong any- 
where. Charlie, I am sensible of greatly diminished 
force, and though I have been going down hill four years, 
this year has marked a decided decadence. However, I 
generally rally, and hope to yet. 

"I have recently called to my aid here Signor Pas- 
chetto. Well, really, he will do most of the preaching, 
as at present he does all. He is one of our very best men, 
firm and gentle, a student and pious. . . . The 
Italian work in general is not making very much progress. 
The most sanguine of the leaders here, while not dis- 
couraged, take a more sober view than ever of the diffi- 
culty, and feel little hopefulness, humanly speaking, of 
the work. But surely God will not fail to answer prayer, 
and crown His own word with His own blessing. 
I have been for some days reading 'Life and Letters of 
John Foster,' a strong and suggestive but somewhat 
gloomy book, though Foster, could he reply, would say 
the gloom is in the reality of things. I am perhaps not 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 253 

quite so deaf as when you were at my house, but more 
so than when I was at yours, and I am in consequence 
much cut off from social life. The best I can do is to 
talk to one person who is on my right side, and will take 
some pains. General conversation is impossible. Last 
Sunday Mr. and Mrs. Crawford, of Buffalo, dined with 
us. To-night we will have a number of friends 

to meet them. I confess I dread it,* but it seemed a 
social duty. There is always some one in Rome to whom 
one has to show some attention." 

A few days later, on March 15th, 1888, he wrote again 
to his brother Charles : 

"I perhaps would not write again so soon but for three 
reasons, viz. : because it is easier to write a second letter 
soon after sending a first, because I can, as to myself, give 
a much better bill of health, and finally because in the 
meantime I have another letter from you. . . . First 
of all I must say that the little party of ours, which I 
was dreading when I wrote you, turned out to be not only 
a great success, but a peculiar pleasure to me — this last, 
I think, chiefly because I set myself as a fine art to make 
everyone have a good time. Then, too, there are, in our 
little circle, several exceedingly pleasant people for whom 
I feel a warm friendship, and whose society I really en- 
joy, though my deafness is a real hindrance. I never 
tried so much before this year to get on the right side of 
people or more strictly to get them on my right side. 

"The day after the rout, Mary and Susy went with a 



*On account of his deafness. 



254 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

party to Frascati, and I, too, was invited and could have 
gone, but owing to the detention of the tram car was left 
by the train. I had, however, a compensation for my 
disappointment, for that was the day of the demonstrations 
by the Unemployed. One of the two incidents of the day 
occurred on the steps leading to the Campidoglio, and 
right under my window. At first the dense mass pressed 
back the police and the few soldiers guarding the position, 
and it seemed at one moment, which was thrilling, that 
they would break through. But presently reinforcements 
came, two bands placing themselves in the piazza above. 
A third, with fixed bayonets, charged up the scalinata (or 
inclined plane), bisecting the mass, and then turning 
round and forcing each half down, and in different 
directions — then the victory was won. Many stones were 
thrown by the people and a few bayonet wounds were 
inflicted, but it was the peculiar Italian patience and 
God's mercy that no shots were fired. Once or twice 
during the half hour that I watched the scene, which could 
not have been more perfectly under my eye, my heart 
beat painfully with excitement and anxiety. A perhaps 
larger crowd, doing real damage, was in the piazza, where 
Mary has her women's meetings, and almost all over the 
city bakeries were invaded, and bread carriers were robbed 
of their burden, so that altogether the scenes of Milan, 
so admirably depicted by Manzoni in the 'Promessi Sposi,' 
were reenacted. 

"Since this episode the illness of the crown prince of 
Germany, the illness and death of the Emperor, and all 
the incidents accompanying, have greatly occupied our 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 255 

thoughts, and we have felt indeed as if we were spectators 
of a tragedy, and almost taking part in it. My 

prayer has been for the excellent crown prince, now 
Emperor, such a sufferer and so sublimely patient and 
self-contained; so heroic as a soldier and yet so devoted 
to peace and to liberal constitutional government, and 
especially for the cause of freedom and civilization, and 
for the masses of the people that the Great Sovereign may 
dominate all these events to the progress of His cause in 
Europe, and in the world." 

On the same day he wrote to his older son, alluding to 
the Rev. Dr. Charles H. Ryland, who is at present, and 
has been for many years, the financial secretary of Rich- 
mond College: 

" . . . Some time before I left the U. S., C. H. 
Ryland wrote asking me for my portrait. I declined, 
thinking it would not be delicate, but said some time I 
would give the portrait of some other person. The thing 
was followed up and so I said I would pay for J. A. B.'s" 

About a year later a friend asked him to sit for his 
portrait, for the Richmond College Library, and he did 
so ; writing afterwards for the Religious Herald an ar- 
ticle entitled "On Having Your Portrait Painted/' sug- 
gested by his sittings in the studio of De Sanctis. In 
this article he said, in part : 

"It is decreed by those whom you wish to oblige, or 
feel bound to obey, that you sit for your portrait, an ex- 
perience which had not been dreamed of in your philos- 
ophy. You feel flattered and fluttered — the latter, because 
you are well aware that yours is not a handsome face, 



256 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and you are almost ashamed to ask an artist to put it upon 
canvas. And so you delay, like the man of classic fable 
waiting on the river bank for the water to run by that 
he may cross, only you know that your case is even more 
desperate, since, though you can never become better 
looking, you may lose what little pulchritude you already 
possess. ........ 

"Let your nattered feeling at the Aristotle Club, or the 
Pine Pole University wanting your portrait, be chastened 
by the fact that their wanting it proves you to be no longer 
young. Only after a man is old enough to have done some- 
thing do people care for his portrait. Besides, then they 
begin to fear that if not taken soon it may not be possible 
to take it from life. This last need not be a sad, but it is 
surely a sobering, thought and a fine counter-irritant to 
vanity. Most portraits in public galleries are of men 
past their prime. So it is at Oxford and Cambridge. We 
have Michael Angelo and Leonardo as elderly men. 
Raphael, in his ' School of Athens/ represents the chief 
characters as aged. Happily, we have his portrait as a 
beautiful young man, painted by his own hand. Not 
otherwise could we have it at all, as he died with the dew 
of his youth upon him, and though so young he has 
already made posterity his debtors and won undying fame. 
But he was one of millions ! After all, you old fellows, 
if not handsome, may be picturesque, which is a good thing 
in a picture. 

"At last you pluck up courage and go to the artist's. 
You have done well to choose the best. Always strike 
high; get the best doctor to physic you, the best lawyer 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 257 

to plead for you, the best preacher to preach to you — the 
best, I mean, that circumstances permit. In marrying 
also, according to Dr. Johnson, a man should strike high ; 
for, he argues, a woman is none the worse for being beauti- 
ful, and if she is well bred and 'used to the handling of 
money, she spends it more judiciously than one who, get- 
ting the command of it for the first time upon her mar- 
riage, has such a gust in spending it that she throws it 
away in great profusion.' This is wise, but only worldly 
wise. Surely, in a better sense, one may covet earnestly 
the best gifts in a companion for life's pilgrimage. 

"Out of the brilliant Spanish Square and street of the 
Baboon, with their wealth of photographs, engravings, 
laces, silk stuffs, jewelry, coral, pearls (oriental and home- 
made), mosaics, cameos, 'objects of religion' luxuriously 
mounted, every species of bric-a-brac, golden butter whose 
pads are stamped with the wolf and Romulus and Remus, 
and, not least, flowers in profusion, — flowers that man has 
made and flowers the handiwork of God, — out of this 
street and square you turn into a back street well known 
to travelled men who love the beautiful. When you have 
climbed a flight of steps you are still in a sort of garden, 
and all around you are the homes — the art homes — of 
painters. 

"Preliminaries are soon arranged, and sittings begin. 
You were wise to leave everything to the painter. In any 
department, get an expert, and then leave the responsibility 
of the case to him. 'He who is his own lawyer has a 
fool for his client' is a proverb which, mutatis mutandis, 
applies to many other subjects. I would have made a good 



258 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Roman Catholic ; and the Papist is all right — except in 
his premises. 

"Half in earnest, but in a playful way, you ask the 
artist to make the picture as good looking as is consistent 
with its being a likeness. You have not quite the courage 
of old Oliver, who ordered Sir Peter Leley, ' Paint me 
as I am, wart and all.' The painter gives you a knowing 
smile; you may be sure he has had that request before 
— you are not the only ill-favored man he had tried his 
brush on, and that, at least, is reassuring. . . . 

"While the preliminaries were arranging, the painter 
was beaming with smiles and effervescing with pleasant 
small talk ; but now that work is begun, what a change ! 
Some time is spent in getting you into the right position, 
and then, for several long minutes, you are scrutinized 
as if he would look through you and read the very secrets 
of your soul. You are slightly embarrassed, and most 
likely, in consequence, not quite natural. At length he 
seizes the charcoal and dashes away as if for dear life, 
looking alternately at the canvas and at you. What 
concentration of faculties ! ~No wonder ! Perhaps not even 
the author requires it more. ..... 

"Even the sitter is under a certain strain to preserve 
his position and keep his eye on the painter, and once, 
you remember, when you yielded to an irresistible desire 
to glance at some geraniums in a window across the street, 
he with imperative gesture recalled your eye to its proper 
object. But before you get very tired he proposes rest, 
and shows you some of the treasures of his studio. Here 
is no end of tapestry, old armor, antique vases, wood carv- 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 259 

ings, crucifixes in iron and ivory, 'studies,' and the like, 
but you soon turn from them to look at some of the por- 
traits. Here is Longfellow, with his shaggy hair and 
beard, looking like an old lion. There, also, are Cantu, 
Italy's famous historian, several senators and members 
of the Lower House. What an honest, bright face Cantu 
has ! If his history is like him, it cannot much resemble 
that of Guicciardini, to the reading of which a galley 
prisoner's sentence was once commuted ; but, after a trial, 
he gave up the book, preferring to expiate his crime in the 
regular way. Here are fair maidens from over the moun- 
tains and beyond the sea, and lovely brunettes from the 
South. The presence of one of these last is explained. 
It was not considered pretty enough by the original. The 
artist prefers to paint the rougher sex, he says. At any 
rate he has done justice, and not more than justice, to 
Italy's peerless and royal Daisy, and by her side is the 
honest King Humbert. One could never feel lonesome in 
this studio, though alone. ISTor would I dare to do or even 
think bad things there, with all those eyes following me 
about. 

"At the first sitting, an outline is made with charcoal. 
Thereafter, the brush is used. One sees in the whole 
process a not unapt figure of sermonizing. There is first 
the conception of the text or topic ; next, the outline 
within which to work, for correct design is the necessary 
condition of a painting or sermon ; and, finally, the filling 
in and coloring. Some sermons would be improved were 
there less going about after originality and more effort 
to simply find and present the thought of the Holy Spirit 



260 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

in the passage selected. In the latter, at least, there is 
ample scope for the creative faculty. Some discourses, on 
the other hand, fail for lack of life and color. After all, 
if a preacher is not interesting enough to induce people to 
listen to him, his 'best laid plans' and most logically con- 
structed trains of thought are all in vain. 

"Another analogy. We need to study again and again, 
and with the concentration of our faculties, the character 
of our Lord Jesus, if we wish that it may be in any good 
measure reproduced in us. Thus 'we all, with unveiled 
face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are 
transformed into the same image from glory to glory.' 

"The portrait progresses. As the colors are laid on, 
the likeness comes out, and you are comforted that it is 
not so ugly as you feared, but your eyes, you venture to 
suggest to the painter, are deeper set than in the picture. 
'Ah, you cannot judge/ he replies, 'until it is done.' A 
great truth is wrapped up in those words. You see your 
mistake, and then think of your greater folly in sometimes 
judging of God's unfinished work. It is not merely that 
the finite is never competent to pass judgment on the in- 
finite, but even that partial estimate that we may make 
must be delayed till the last touch has been given to it 
by the Divine hand. 

'With patient mind thy course of duty run, 
God nothing does, or suffers to be done, 
But thou wouldst do thyself, if thou couldst see 
The end of all events as well as He.' 

And even man's work, and any human life, may not be 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 261 

rightly estimated until the close. As a whole it must be 
weighed, if no injustice is to be done. 

'Grow old along with me! 

The best is yet to be — 
The last of life, for which the first was made. 

Our times are in His hand 

Who saith, A whole I planned; 
Youth shows but half; trust God; see all, nor be afraid. 



For note, when evening shuts, 

A certain moment cuts 
The deed off, calls the glory from the gray. 

A whisper from the west 

Shouts, Add this to the rest: 
Take it and try its worth; here dies another day. 



So, take and use Thy work; 

Amend what flaws may lurk, 
What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim! 

My times be in Thy hand! 

Perfect the cup as planned! 
Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same!* 

"One day I sat by the painter and watched his work, 
and saw, as this and that touch was given, the likeness 
little by little coming out. So have I seen — and surely 
earth has no lovelier sight — some friend year after year 
grow more and more into the likeness of the Divine Man. 
I ventured to say to the painter that I began to see your 
lineaments appearing. 'But no,' he replied, 'I have not 
even begun to put in the likeness.' Thus, methinks, in 
a man who seems to us Christlike the likeness has not 
even begun compared to 'what he shall be.' That 'doth 
not yet appear. . . . ' " 



262 LIFE AND LETTEES OF 

On March 16th, 1888, he wrote to his younger son: 

" . . Did I mention that I am re-reading Ivan- 
hoe ? I see that in the Century there is a lively fight going 
on between Stevenson and Howells, the former representing 
the ideal and romantic, and the other the realistic in 
literature. It seems to me a useless contest, since both 
have and ought to have their due place. I confess I 
am enjoying Ivanhoe more than I expected. 
Never was there a more ex tempore trip than that to 
Frascati which Susy and I took day before yesterday. 
It was spoken of playfully at breakfast, but finding Susy 
would like it, I at once descided to go. The 

mountains were white with snow and the fields with 
daisies. We had a charming day, wandering through the 
villas, climbing hills, and plucking flowers, as well as 
drinking in deep draughts of fine air which made me 
skip and jump like a kid. Then, too, we got a nice though 
inexpensive dinner at the restaurant of the Sole, followed 
by a maritozzo* each at a cafe, and a cup of black coffee 
for me. By midday the sky was very much overcast, but 
we cheerfully hoped it would not rain, as we had no 
umbrella, and it did not until about 4.30, when a fine 
sprinkle began. We felicitated ourselves much in hitting 
the train almost exactly, for we had no watch either. We 
were rather badly smoked in the car but reached Rome 
safely, and then, though it was raining little, I took a cab 
home, for I noticed that Susy's shoes were not very thick. 
I thought during the day of other visits to F , the last, 



*A kind of bun, made with oil, and eaten during Lent. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 263 

I believe, with you, and very vividly of one with your 
mother in 1878 or '79, when being at a sort of crisis in 
the mission we discussed plans, and your mother said at 
any sacrifice we must stay on and work on in Rome. I 
shall never forget it. I remembered, too, all day that it 
was not only the King's birthday but your mother's as 
well. She is often in my mind. Did I tell you of going 
on the 7th, and carrying flowers to her grave? From it 
I plucked two violets, which I enclose for you and George. 
My son, you had a rarely noble and lovely mother. I often 
think what you and Susy lost by her too early death. 
I must tell you of a curious thing. Some ten 
days ago I received a long letter from a legal firm in 

J , T , accompanied by others from prominent 

Baptist ministers, begging me to make certain investiga- 
tions here. It seems that there was a man calling him- 
self , who was very injudiciously called to 

the pastorate of the Baptist Church there. When he be- 
came intolerable they got rid of him. Then he began to 
publish all manner of accusations, till in self-defense they 
tracked his past history and finding proof that he was a 
first-class scoundrel, with several aliases, published the 
same. He, thereupon, brought suit for defamation. Be- 
fore the court he gave the name of the person whom he 

claims to be his father, a certain with four 

prenomens, whom he alleges to have died in Rome on 

May 6th at the house of one living on the 

Corso, and to have been buried May 8th in the cemetery 

at . There is no record of such death or 

burial, and so far no can be heard of. I have sent 



264 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

one telegram and one letter, the latter of which I swore 
before the American Consul. But I am still at work." 

The following letter explains itself: 

"University of Virginia, 

"April 5th, 1888. 
"Dear Doctor Taylor — I have the honor to inform you 
that the faculty have unanimously elected you one of the 
delegates to represent the University of Virginia on the 
occasion of the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the 
University of Bologna on the 11th, 12th and 13th days 
of June next. We hope that you will find it in your 
power to accept the appointment, and will be one of the 
representatives of the Alma Mater on the interesting occa- 
sion. We have appointed two delegates. Your colleague 
is the Hon. Boyd Winchester, Minister Resident of the 
United States at Berne, Switzerland. Minister Win- 
chester is an alumnus of the year 1855. Hoping soon to 
receive a favorable reply, I am, 

"Your very sincerely, 

"Chas. S. Venable. 

"P. S. I must take this occasion to do that which I 
should have done long ago — that is, to thank you in the 
name of the faculty for the gift to the library of the 
portrait of our honored colleague, Prof. ~N, K. Davis." 

Dr. Taylor accepted the appointment, and attended this 
interesting and unique celebration. The same summer 
he had a visit, which he greatly enjoyed, from two Vir- 
ginia pastors, the Rev. Dr. William E. Hatcher, his warm 
friend of former days, and the Rev. Dr. L. R. Thornhill. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 265 

Dr. Taylor was summering at Cutigliano, an out-of-the- 
way place up in the Apennines, but guided by a postal 
from their friend the travellers, though ignorant of Italian, 
arrived safely, late one Sunday night. The visit is de- 
scribed by Dr. Taylor and by Dr. Hatcher. In a letter 
to his older son, dated September 8th, 1888, the former 
writes : 

" ... At 10 p. m. . . . the bell rang. It 
put me quite in a quiver, as it had never rung before at 
night, and I feared a bad telegram. But on opening the 
door, behold Messrs. Hatcher and Thornhill, who had 
thought, situated as they were, the most Sunday-like 
employment was to get to us, and they had come guided 
by directions in one of my earlier postal cards. 
Mary and Susy (the servant being away) got 'em a hot 
supper, and prepared their room. . . . We talked till 
midnight, as we did also Monday and Tuesday nights, 
sleeping late to get even . . . and I have never en- 
joyed a visit more. They seemed to enjoy themselves 
royally well, and were most kindly appreciative of every- 
thing. Dr. Hatcher was his own bright self. 
Their visit stirred me up in a very pleasant way, and I 
needed stirring up very badly." 

Dr. Hatcher, in an article about Dr. Taylor, speaks 
thus of this visit, and other days with Dr. Taylor in 
other parts of Italy: 

"His appointment to Italy was the decisive event of his 
life. I fairly went into mourning over it, and yet rejoiced. 
It was something not to forget to mark the serene serious- 



266 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ness with which he faced his new career. When he went, 
it was agreed that I was to see him in his Italian home — 
one of my fair hopes long deferred, but realized in time. 
Being advised of my coming over in the summer of 1888 
he notified me that he was summering in the Apennines, 
and that I must come to him there. Not an accessible 
point and I reached it at midnight of Sunday about 
September the first, after a hard ride through the moun- 
tains. He and his daughters were up, and truly I never 
had such a welcome ! His dear face was transfigured with 
radiance, and as he threw his arm around me and said, 
'O Brother William, my own dear friend, you have come 
at last !' it seemed to me that my heart leaped to a height 
of happiness never attained before. blessed days ! 
He told me that in our rambles among the crags of the 
Apennines we were on the very spot where Cat aline 
used to hide and hatch his deadly plots, but the arch- 
conspirator did not disturb us. For days our feast of joy 
went on, and now as he sleeps in his grave my heart finds 
food in the memory of it. 

"Dr. Taylor talked much of going with me to Rome, 
but I would not hear of it, as his health was feeble, but 
he had his house opened and put in order for me, engaged 
the faithful janitor of the Baptist Church to wait on my 
wishes, and interested the pastor of the church and others 
to make it happy for me while in the city of Rome. 

"Later on Dr. Taylor met me at Bologna, and we 
travelled extensively together through Northern Italy, visit- 
ing a number of our missionary stations. He knew Italy 
by heart, and of all guides he was the most instructive. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 267 

Indeed he was so refreshing that often silent tears, tokens 
of jo j, not sorrow, dimmed my eyes. 

"Finally our parting came at Milan. I asked him when 
I was to see him in America. 'Never, I hope/ he said, 
with decision, and I upbraided him to elicit an explana- 
tion, and got it. It came in about the following words: 
'My wife never felt called to be a missionary and really 
preferred to live in America, but as a good wife she cheer- 
fully came with me. And she has found a grave in Italy. 
I feel that I must be buried beside her, and if I go to 
America I fear that I may die while there and they may 
bury me in that country. This would be like deserting 
one who gave up all for me.' I had not another word to 
say. He did come to America later, but his wish to be 
buried in Italy was gratified." 

As Dr. Taylor and his daughters returned to Rome that 
fall, they stopped for a few days in Florence. Concerning 
this visit, he writes in a letter to his son, dated Florence, 
October 7th, 1888: 

" . . . We have spent two mornings in the Uflfizi 
and Pitti galleries, one in each. The latter is now called 
the 'Palatine.' When I was here in 1870 admittance was 
free as air, whereas now, as in every museum or ancient 
building, a franc each is the fee. But these galleries are 
always crowded and, indeed, the sum is very small as 
compared with prices in America, and considering the 
richness of the collections. There are pictures in those 
galleries which I can shut my eyes and see, and which 
are a great joy to me. This time we have given more 
attention than ever before to Fra Angelico and Botticelli — 



268 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the latter on account of an article on his works in a late 
Harper. But your sisters have for some time been read- 
ing up for this week, which is, as the theatre people say, 
their 'benefit,' and which they richly deserve. I do wish 
them to get the best of Italy so that in case of their re- 
moval to America they may have stored in their memories 
precious pictures in abundance of this land of art and 
beauty. One morning was given to Santa Croce, the West- 
minster Abbey of Italy, and yesterday morning to San 
Marco, with the wonderful frescoes of Fra Angelico in 
the convent there, now a government museum, and the cell 
from which Savonarola went forth to die. It never 
seemed so real to me before. An hour was given also to 
the church of San Lorenzo, with its double-starred new 
sacristy and Medici chapel. To-morrow we must go to 
the Academy of the Belle Arti. Of course we have given 
due attention to the Duomo and Giotto's tower and the 
Baptistery. The Duomo is now resplendent in its facade, 
completed only last year. At the Baptistery we witnessed 
an infant sprinkling (what a contradiction in that place!), 
and at San Lorenzo witnessed a bridal procession issue as 
we entered. There was a wealth of lovely bouquets 
fastened to the doors of the carriages, but the bride seemed 
neither young nor beautiful. . . . Two afternoons 
we have sauntered on Lung Arno, looking at the pretty 
bric-a-brac in this capital of bric-a-bracdom, and one bright, 
clear afternoon we rode in a carriage on the famous and 
beautiful ride over the hills of San Miniato, enjoying a 
lovely view of the city, river and encircling hills. This 
paper was made at Ponte di Lima, about three miles from 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 269 

Cutigliano, where also all the government stamp paper 
is made. We like it, specially considering the low price." 

Apropos of this love of the beautiful in art and nature, 
which was so strong in Dr. Taylor, are the following words 
from his younger son: 

"When I was but a lad my father took me to the Art 
Gallery in Bologna and made me sit down before Raphael's 
immortal picture of St. Cecilia listening to heavenly 
music. He told me we had but an hour to stay and that 
this was the gem of the collection and deserved our whole 
time. I was to gaze at the painting earnestly and try to 
fix it on my visual memory until I could close my eyes 
and see again each detail. Then he sent me through the 
gallery, looking at other pictures, pausing now and again 
to shut my eyes and attempt to call up the St. Cecilia, and 
finally coming back to it to fill in such details as were 
not clear. The same drill was carried out at a later date 
before the wonderful 'Descent from the Cross' by 
Rubens in the Antwerp Cathedral. These paintings have 
remained my favorites. He taught me, too, to increase the 
charm and delight in the contemplation of nature by the 
same process. I was never idly to observe the beauty of 
a scene in the outside world, but to study it carefully, look- 
ing for the details which heightened the general effect 
and analyzing the elements of light and shade and form 
and color, which went to make the whole. And all this 
was from one who could not draw a stroke. His sensitive- 
ness to the beautiful had its counterpart in his distaste for 
everything that savored of grossness or vulgarity. He was 
naturally refined and abhorred impurity, but he appre- 



270 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ciated the facility with which one may be contaminated, 
and as carefully avoided all the insidious avenues by which 
evil makes entrance into the human heart, as if he were 
really weak in that direction." 

The keen, loving interest Dr. Taylor took in everything 
which concerned his dear ones, not to speak of his genuine 
sympathy with a very much larger circle, and his wide- 
awake touch with the affairs of men, was beautifully 
illustrated in December, 1888, when his oldest son was 
married. Not only did he offer him any financial assist- 
ance he might need, arrange for a handsome present, and 
give to the prospective Benedict affectionate and wise 
advice, but with that fine sentiment which was a gracious 
characteristic of his the wedding day, as the following 
letter shows, was observed as a holiday in Rome, though 
the marriage was in Virginia. Under date of December 
20th, he wrote to his son : 

" . . . Your wedding day was not spent by us 
according to programme, which I hope was not the case 
with you and a certain fair lady of the Old Dominion. 
. . . To begin with, I passed a rather sleepless night 
preceding the 19th. . . . Accordingly the morning 
family prayers, in which we are very regular, did not come 
off. On that occasion we should not only have made 
special prayer together for you and your promessa sposa, 
but several appropriate selections from the Bible and other- 
wise would have been read. Susy, however, read a charm- 
ing book, as a holiday had been proclaimed. I had an 
extra shine put upon my gaiters, and bought ixve mazzetti 
of lovely flowers, which in as many vases gave a gala 



KEV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 271 

look to our house. One of the five was of white roses. 
After tea we gathered in the parlour, Mary and all, be- 
fore a lovely fire, and after talking awhile about your 
wedding and mine, Mary craved the opening of the box 
of family letters and papers, which was made up when 
we last went to the U. S. From its loft it came, and we 
were soon deep in its contents ; various letters of your 
mother, written before our marriage, were read. 
On the whole we were following somewhat our programme, 
when, presto, change ! Mr. Paschetto brought up various 
mission affairs, . . . and lo ! our evening was gone. 
. We knelt down together before going to bed, 
praying with all our hearts for you two. . . . God 
bless you, my dear son, and your wife, to whom give a 
kiss from each of us." 

While he always wrote a good hand Dr. Taylor was 
sure to pay especial attention to his chirography when- 
ever in note or letter a lady was his correspondent, so we 
find the penmanship in his first letter to his new daughter 
very faultless. It is dated January 18th, 1889 : 

" . . . First of all I wish to add another to the list 
of Charles Lamb's popular fallacies, that ugly couplet, 
viz., about 'a daughter being a daughter,' etc., 'but a son is 
a son,' etc. As to the former, I cannot say, but I am 
constantly more and more convinced of what I never 
really doubted, that I have not lost a son, but gained a 
true, loving daughter. I am so glad that you like Chapel 
Hill. ... It impressed me as a pleasant place to 
live at, as there are a sufficient number of cultured per- 
sons to give one ample social advantages. Besides, I 



272 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

always like the very air of a college. ... I have 
always held that the wife of a minister has no official 
duties whatever. She is a wife and she is a Christian 
woman, the last fact making it her duty to do what she 
can for Christ and His cause ; being the wife of a pastor 
may or may not give her special opportunities of service. 

I do not know whether you have been in the 
habit of keeping up so active and incessant a corre- 
spondence as the Taylors for as far back as I remember, 
but if you have not, your letters to us show that you have 
not only the facility generally attributed to your sex, but 
a gift all your own. I do esteem it a real mercy that my 
new daughter is such a good correspondent, for I have 
known some very nice and intelligent persons who never 
dream of writing a letter unless it is absolutely necessary, 
and then only a few cold lines in the style of a telegram. 
I believe I wrote you and George how provokingly . 
we failed to keep the 19th of December according to our 
plan. Nevertheless I read in those days a deal of poetry, 
and especially read and re-read the Epithalamium, or 
marriage lay of Tennyson, found in 'In Menioriam.' 

It is not stated whether Lushington trod on 
Cecilia Tennyson's train — at least I did not mark that 
item." 

If this volume does not contain numerous letters from 
Dr. Taylor's pen to his nieces, and other kin, it is not 
because these letters were not written, but chiefly for 
lack of space. The following extract from a letter written 
to one of his nieces, dated December 27th, 1889, shows 
several of his gracious traits of character: 



EEV. GEOEGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOE, D. D. 273 

" ... If my chirography prove a little shaky, 
please attribute it to Mary's sewing machine, which is on 
the same table as this sheet, and is at this moment, under 
her energetic hand, going like mad. We are passing a 
very pleasant Christmas week. I sent books to several 
poor Italian children and some little things to Mrs. 
Eager's bairns, specially to the boy named after me. 
One evening I took little George Taylor Eager 
to see by gaslight the pretty things in the windows. It 
was no easy matter piloting a three-year-old child on the 
Corso, crowded with vehicles and pedestrians, but I was 
more than paid by his exuberant delight. I brought him 
home in an omnibus, and having finished his cake he lay 
down on my knees and went fast asleep. ..." 

His interest in his nephews and nieces did not con- 
fine itself to letters. He was often sending first to one and 
then to another, pictures, or a book, or money. From one 
of his nieces the following sentences, which might be 
duplicated from many another such letter, is taken: 

" Thank you for your kind Christmas gift which was 
received by us on Christmas day. ... I intend to 
expend mine in something I have long wished for, but 
didn't feel that I ought to give myself — a riding habit, 
and every time I wear it I shall thank you again and 
again for it." 

The next two extracts from letters to his children give 
glimpses of several phases of Dr. Taylor's life and work 
in superintending the Italian Mission: 

" . . . I had over lire 10,000 to get off in eleven 
cheques, and there is a deal of formality as to preparing 



274 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the money, putting it into certain form and making the 
demand for the cheques. I had all right, except that two 
of the cheques were to be for over 1,000, and so by the 
rules of the bank were to be applied for in a different 
way. So my pile of money was handed back and I sat 
down to work out the thing. . . . There was no help 
but to bring my money and papers back home or to throw 
myself on the mercy of the court, i. e. 7 of the cashier, and 
as there was a lull at that moment in the crowd at his 
desk, I did the last. He was very much amused, but most 
benevolent, seeing from my golden ( ! ) locks that I was 
one of the Angles or Angels, and so fixed my affairs in a 
giffy. I was feeling badly, and so was willing to be 
pitied and smiled at, as the price of being helped. 

"We had first the meeting of the Baptist Union and 
then that of our own evangelists. I was made president 
of both as well as of the Executive Committee. No sine- 
cure I assure you, as in some respects it would be easier 
to preside over the S. B. C. than over these twenty-five 
or thirty Italians. But the meetings went well and I 
believe did good. It was a time of great anxiety to 
me, so that I passed wakeful nights after laborious days, 
but difficulties were surmounted in an unexpected way. 
So, also, I did not break down or have any severe attack 
as I feared I would. . . . Our meetings were from 
8 or 9 a. m. till 7 p. m., and then preaching at 8.30 p. m. 
with intermission for dinner. We had each day five or 
six to dine and some to sup. . . . Mary and Susy 
spared no pains to entertain (materially) and surprised 
me by their resources, while they captivated the hearts of 



EEV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 275 

the evangelists with their sweet faces, bright talk and 
winning ways." 

For a number of years, in the little English-speaking, 
evangelical circle, of which Dr. Taylor and his daughters 
were members, an informal but interesting literary club 
was kept up. Here is a description of one of the club's 
meetings, from Dr. Taylor's pen: 

"Our club has been on Wordsworth for two weeks and 
would be one or two more, only that we held yesterday 
our last meeting for the season ; held it by the stream and 
under the trees in the lovely Villa Doria Pampili, than 
which Wordsworth himself never saw anything finer in 
the Lake District. We read yesterday 'Happy Warrior' 
and 'Ode to Duty,' and I also read while the rest were 
eating cake a description by Wordsworth himself of that 
country. When the sentence was reached where he exalts 
the Cumbrian sky at the expense of the 'cerulean vacancy 
of Italy,' we all laughed, for the sky above us was flecked 
with fleecy clouds and was as little vacant as could be. 
On our arrival Spotswood proposed that I should sit on 
my large copy of Wordsworth. 'No, Spotswood, I shall 
not sit down on Wordsworth; I got into trouble enough 
at the last meeting by sitting down on only one of Words- 
worth's poems.' (Company much tickled.) That one was 
the 'Leech Gatherer, or Resolution and Independence,' 
which our English friends thought a gem of the first 
water, but Mary and I couldn't see it and expressed our- 
selves freely (especially I) to that effect. It is hardly 
necessary to say that for many of Wordsworth's poems we 
have unbounded love and admiration." 



276 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

All his references to the mission, in his letters, cannot 
be given, for there was scarcely ever a letter to any one 
that did not speak of what was always upon his heart. 
The quiet progress was seen as the years passed on. On 
May 14th, 1890, he wrote to his brother Charles : 

" . . . Really if I were not feeling too stupid to 
work on an essay in Italian on 'Immersion Essential to 
Baptism,' I would not now be penning these lines. 
This reminds me to say, with gratitude, that from being 
one of the worst sleepers, I have become a very good one, 
usually getting from seven to ten hours of refreshing 
slumber every night." 

Not very long afterwards in a letter to one of his sons 
he says : 

" . . . You ask about the mission work. Clouds 
and sunshine mingle in our sky. Nicholas Papengouth 
seems to be getting on better than any of our workers. 
Never a report without baptisms. . . . Old Brother 
Ferraris is still engaged at wayside sowing. On the 9th 
our new chapel at Carpi will be dedicated. . . . We 
are having just now three candidates for the ministry 
offered to and almost pressed upon us. At 

Yenezia there is a young candidate." 

A paragraph from Dr. Taylor's "Italy and the Italians" 
gives the setting of the next letter: 

"In April, 1891, the ninth International Conference of 
the Evangelical Alliance was held in Florence. Members 
were present from twenty different countries, and one 
hundred and fifty Italian evangelists from all over Italy, 
and of all the different denominations. ... A very 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 277 

agreeable episode was the sending of a telegram convey- 
ing the salutations and best wishes of the Alliance to the 
King of Italy, and his sympathetic response." 
The letter is dated Florence, April 7th, 1891 : 
" . . . I am most pleasantly situated as the guest 
of the Evangelical Alliance. . . . This p. m., of the 
four addresses on Italian Evangelization, I made one — in 
English. I have no idea how I did, but it's over, that's 
a comfort. It is pleasant meeting Italian brethren of all 
denominations, and, in general, a good feeling prevails. 
I have also met several English-speaking friends, includ- 
ing Dr. Culross, president of the famous Bristol College, 
which recalls Drs. Ryland, Hale, Foster, etc. . . . 
This is a rambling old palace whose topography I may 
so far master by the end of the week as not to run up the 
wrong stairs, down the wrong passages and into the wrong 
rooms, but which to know thoroughly would require yet 
another week. ... I rose early this morning and 
went to the morning prayer-meeting. It is one of the best 
features, marked by spirituality. We had over twenty 
short prayers in German, French, Italian and English. 
I prayed in my native tongue. . . . Last night the 
correspondent of the London Times asked for my address, 
so I spent two hours writing it out for him. Mary was in 
the French section and heard Godet. . . . The 
prayer-meeting grew so in numbers that it is now held in 
the theatre proper. I heard Stocker, the court preacher, 
deliver in German his address on Socialism, and. I had a 
printed Italian translation which I read as he spoke. 
Pastor Bauman of Berlin sits opposite to me at meals, and 



278 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

seems a fine, cordial fellow. ... I have liked spe- 
cially well the addresses of Mr. Nicholson of Dublin, 
Donald Eraser of London, and Dr. Boardman of Phila- 
delphia. ... I was a good deal surprised when yes- 
terday Signor Torino, one of the older and more influential 
Waldenses, came to me and with great cordiality said: 
'Ella non ha mai parlato contro nessuno. Gli altri si 
graffiano.' 'You have never talked against any one. The 
others scratch one another.' It was a testimonv which 
may well encourage me to persevere as I have so far, with 
God's help, in a quiet, straightforward, pacific course, hold- 
ing and proclaiming what I believe to be the teachings of 
God's word, but not fighting any one." 

In a letter written later the same month, he apologizes 
to one of his sons for not sending him a birthday present, 
saying that "certain gifts and loans, and expenses so as 
to make an additional guest fairly comfortable without 
making ourselves unfairly uncomfortable, made this 
rather a tight squeeze of a trimistre, and you and I know 
each other's hearts." Dr. Taylor was always making 
gifts, and his generosity to his children knew no bounds ; 
he often denied himself almost the necessities of life that 
he might be able to give presents to his loved ones and 
friends. 

In a letter to his sister he refers to a meeting of the 
literary club, which has already been mentioned : 

"... At the meeting of last Saturday each one 
brought a slip of paper with a list of the ten English short 
poems he would prefer to send to an International 
Literary Exposition as best representing English poetry. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 279 

Milton's 'Lycidas,' 'II Penseroso,' 'L' Allegro' ; Gray's 
'Elegy' ; Collins' Ode 'How Blest the Brave' ; The Sky- 
lark' and 'The Cloud,' by Shelley; Wordsworth's 'Ode to 
Duty,' his 'Ode on Intimations of Immortality' and his 
'Lines on the Cuckoo' ; Mrs. Browning's 'Pan is Dead' ; 
Eobert Browning's 'How They Brought the News from 
Ghent to Aix' ; Tennyson's 'Sir Galahad' ; Cowper's 
'Lines on Receiving His Mother's Picture' ; Burns' 
'Cotter's Saturday Night,' — these fifteen were among those 
mentioned. How would my sister and my two brothers 
have made the list ?" 

A letter dated Rome, St. John the Baptist's Day (June 
24th, 1891), has several items and allusions of interest: 

"Here is a tempting half sheet — why not fill it with 
words to you? No objection made by devil's advocate 
or other party, and there's positive reason for doing it, 
in my laziness, due to not having gotten sleep enough 
last night, because we went, five of us, to the great cele- 
bration of St. John's Eve at St. John in Lateran last 
night, and did not get back till midnight, and then Mary 
and I talked awhile and finally, like Charles Lamb, by 
contraries, having gone to bed late I made up for it by 
rising early and taking an hour before breakfast this 
morning with my New Testament under certain deli- 
ciously fragrant trees in front of Bunsen's old home on 
the Capitoline. There are two sufficient reasons why I 
do not try to picture to you that strange blending of 
poetry and saturnalia of last night : first, I couldn't do it, 
and, besides, it's possible Mary of Argyle may make a pen 
picture of it all for the Atlantic Monthly. I take it for 



280 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

granted you have not so neglected your education as to 
omit her four already appeared." 

In a letter almost a month later, to his daughter Jessie, 
he wrote: 

" . . . For one thing, the Carnival has been in 
progress, and though till yesterday we have made no 
attempt to see the show, many of the masqueraders and 
several of the allegorical representations have been seen 
incidentally, while yesterday the girls got standing room 
on the Corso, and saw all, and in the evening we assisted 
at the moccolette, far more brilliant than it has ever been 
before, and continued for over an hour, from 6 to after 7. 
Instead of simple tapers, torches giving colored lights 
were used, and the Corso was one scene of wild fun and 
blazing glory. We came home dead tired — you know 
how fatiguing it is to stand, but Mary and Susy, who had 
let Agnese go, served tea and eggs in five minutes. It 
seemed like magic, and then we all went to bed. I am 
glad the Carnival is over. ... Along with the bright, 
poetical part is a deal of rowdyism, and worse. I got 
caught in the throng for one block yesterday, and was 
banged on the head with so-called bouquets till my head 
ached. . . . Every mail, every newspaper nearly, 
seems to bring news of friends, more or less well known 
and loved, who have passed over to the majority. This 
morning we hear of the decease not of a contemporary of 
mine, but of a brilliant young man, and, thank God, as 
good as brilliant — Harry Smith, son of Prof. Frank Smith 
at the University of Virginia. What shadows we are, 
what shadows we pursue !" 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 281 

In the spring of 1892 the Italian Baptist churches all 
over Italy united in holding a bazaar in Rome. Mr. S. 
L. Clemens (Mark Twain) was in Rome at the time and 
Dr. Taylor asked him to speak at the bazaar ; Mr. 
Clemens, not being at all well, declined the invitation. 
Some 3,000 lire was made by the bazaar. In the follow- 
ing letter Dr. Taylor tells of some of the gifts for the 
bazaar which came from the various churches: 

" . Soon there arrived a pacco postale from 

Torre Pellice (similar pacchi arrive often now from our 
various churches for the bazaar) ; it contained other things, 
but chiefly a chamois skin, and as the letter asked to have 
it unpacked at once Signor Paschetto and I opened the 
bundle. The skin is a very fine specimen and very valu- 
able, as the wild goat is becoming, at least about Torre 
Pellice, very scarce. The horns are attached as in life. 
Our evangelist of Miglionico has sent some old jars, just 
as dug up. Some are small and imperfect, one or two are 
large and with no flaw. As they come from a simple 
out-of-the-way place, they are certainly genuine, and as 
the region was a part of Magna Grsecia, they must be very 
ancient. Signor Nicholas Papengouth, who considers 
himself something of a connoisseur, has sent a Madonna 
and child painted on copper, and framed in hard black 
wood, carved. It is perhaps eight by ten inches. He 
attributes it to an old Milanese painter and values it at 
100 lire. Signor Arbanasich is going to send, besides 
miscellaneous articles, a large collection of crystals and 
other stones, as well as shells and flowers, prepared under 
the direction of the professor in Cagliari, said to be of 



282 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

European fame. They will go far to represent three 
kingdoms of Sardinia's natural history, though I am not 
sure if that term includes mineralogy. Signor Fasulo has 
sent a picture painted by himself. . . . Whether we 
get little money or more, the movement has done good to 
all who have worked for it, and I hope will also draw 
nearer together all the Baptists of Rome, not to say Italy." 

During this year Spotswood spent some months at 
home and before the family left Rome for the summer 
he took an excursion which is referred to in a letter his 
father wrote June 19th, 1892 : 

" . . . Day before yesterday Spotswood went 
to Bracciano, as he seemed to have set his heart on it. 
As he had to get off at 3 a. m., none of us slept much that 
night, but when he returned delighted and enthusiastic 
with the old castle, so admired, you remember, by Sir 
Walter Scott, we felt amply repaid." 

All through the years answering multitudinous letters 
in Italian, and many of them disagreeable and annoying, 
formed no small part of Dr. Taylor's work. The follow- 
ing extract from a letter, to one of his sons, bears upon 
this subject: 

"I remember that I spoke of my habit of replying, even 
to the most offensive letters from our evangelists, with 
delicacy and with Christian charity, but it is quite neces- 
sary to complete the statement by saying that this is not 
done without a struggle. Sometimes for a day, or for 
days, my heart is seething with hurt and indignant feel- 
ings whenever the matter occurs to me, but I wait till all 
this is past, and by prayer and time I can write with entire 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 283 

calmness, looking at the subject from the other person's 
point of view, and putting the most favorable construction 
upon his words, and remembering that he may have 
written in an access of feeling and has not expressed his 
own habitual sentiments. Yes, I have learned to wait 
before writing — once I used to write at once, but keep 
the letter for a day, but as it nearly always had to be 
rewritten, and sometimes more than once, I find that 
it is wise every way to delay till all the grieved and 
angry feeling of my heart has boiled over, and left a 
calm. . . . Now do not misunderstand me; so far 
from arrogating to myself any 'meekness of wisdom/ 
what I mean is that when I do arrive at it, it is only after 
a severe, and protracted struggle in which God gains the 
victory over my evil, and, alas ! strong, impulses." 

In a letter to his older son he says : 

"... You refer to the death of Frank Wilson. 
This last was a painful shock to me, and I have, of course, 
written a letter of heartfelt sympathy to the sorely be- 
reaved ones, feeling that the loss was a personal one to 
me also." 

On August 15th, 1892, he wrote to his older son from 
the Bagni di Lucca. He refers to Rev. Dr. J. M. Frost, 
Secretary of the Sunday School Board, Nashville, Tenn., 
and to C. B. Willingham, Esq., a deacon in the First 
Baptist Church, Macon, Ga. : 

"I am sitting under the shade of the ample plane trees 
in the plateau, called garden, of the Casa Bertini, which 
you remember so well and pleasantly. I am feeling lan- 
guid and perhaps lazy, and finding it a deal easier to look 



284 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

at the mountains bathed in purple mist, and the sea of 
green above me, and bits of blue sky between the leaves, 
than to write an article for Dr. Frost and his Teacher, on 
Italy. . . . The generous promise of your noble 
deacon rejoices my heart, and is likely to turn the scale 
in favor of the Miglionico people. Certainly I shall write 
to him. . . . Spotswood and Susy are to have Dr. 
and Mrs. Curry and their niece as fellow-passengers." 

Another letter bearing date of September 13th, 1892, 
was written at Bagni di Lucca, and in the garden: 

" . Saturday p. m. we went on a picnic to 

Benabbio. It was a rather serious climb for me, specially 
as we went pretty straight up, and not in the gentle, easy 
step I prefer for climbing. The originators were General 
Anderson and family. He is an old East Indian, who 
reads the Scriptures at church; his wife is a very clever, 
kind lady, and her sisters somewhat the same. There are 
two very nice daughters and a niece whose father and 
mother were killed in the Sepoy Rebellion." 

A week later he wrote describing another excursion on 
which, while waiting for the younger people of the party 
to return from a tramp, he was able to present the gospel 
to a crowd of people in the open air : 

" . . . But at least an hour was spent in a far 
different way, for followed by the poor children of the 
place for baksheesh, and having dispensed all my small 
change (sixty centesimi), and the crowd of children and 
women continuing to come, moved largely by curiosity, I 
addressed the crowd at length, in a colloquial way, on the 
love and saving work of Jesus Christ, and got R. Lowe to 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 285 

sing a child's hymn and 'Sicuro in mun di Cristo' ["Safe 
in the Arms of Jesus"]. All seemed much impressed, 
and one woman said, 'Your religion is better than ours.' 
It was really a fine opportunity for seed-sowing; God 
grant that it may not be all in vain! . . . One of 
the regrets of my pastorate in Staunton is that I did not 
pay more attention to the Jews there. The attention you 
received on the train from a Hebrew suggests to me to 
ask whether there is not a work for you among that people 
in Macon. Of course if there is a synagogue, the matter 
is different. But may not Jews often take up the cry, 
'No man cared for my soul V The Jews are a most liberal 
and philanthropic class, as I have found. Of course the 
chief thing to do is to win their love and confidence, and 
stand up for them, and some of the young men might, 
with God's blessing, be won to Jesus. Many of them are 
chiefly infidel and indifferent." 

The news of the birth of his first grandchild called 
forth a letter, dated November 12th, 1892 : 

"Never had man a surprise greater and more agreeable 
than I had this morning in receiving yours of the 31st 
ultimo, announcing the birth to you and Jessie of a 
son. For months it has been my daily cry to God to give 
you a child, to be trained for His service, and to become 
a great comfort to you both, and a blessing to the world. 
. . . It gives me a queer feeling to be a grandpapa. 
I must be a better man and I'll try." 

In a letter dated December 14th, 1892, he gives timely 
advice to his son who was a preacher: 

. . . Before I doff my critic's cap let me ask 



286 LIFE AND LETTEES OF 

if it were well to speak of Cleveland's election in your 
Thanksgiving address. I trow not. It seemed very 
natural and proper to you and the people no doubt, but 
the like of that is just the entering wedge to bringing 
politics in the pulpit, as they did and perhaps still do in 
New England. ... As a citizen, sympathize and 
rejoice with all your heart at what you think best for the 
South and the country, but bring it not into the house of 
God and the pulpit." 

To his younger daughter, who was at this time in the 
United States, he wrote fully as to her plans, urging her 
at whatever cost to seek a full reestablishment of her 
health : 

" . . Go in August for two or three weeks to 

the Rockbridge Baths. . . . Now I shall be very 
much hurt and displeased at your allowing any notions 
of economy to influence you on the subject of this letter 
and specially in the matters of the Rockbridge Baths. 
It would be false economy. You need to get well. Life 
is not worth living without health. ... I, too, am 
a fairly good economist. I hate debt and can truly say 
that I owe no man anything." 

It may not be inappropriate to introduce at this point 
some sentences written by Dr. Taylor's younger son, and 
illustrating his father's careful economy, and large 
liberality : 

"I learned as a very small child that my father was a 
very busy man. But he was always patient of inter- 
ruptions, and when he could not attend to me at once he 
always had some pleasant suggestion for passing the time 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 287 

I had to wait. He would hand me a book open at a place 
that was sure to interest me or give me a scrap of paper, 
and tell me what to draw or write about. 

"These scraps of paper were peculiar to his study and 
illustrate his minute economy and good sense. Such a 
thing as a scratch pad bought for mere scribbling or 
memoranda was unheard of in our home. Father saved 
every envelope to turn inside out, every unused page or 
half page that came to him in a letter, even wrapping 
paper that was not too soiled or coarse, and put them away 
in a special portfolio. From this store he drew for him- 
self and his children alike. I can see that old portfolio 
yet, and the accounts and estimates and skeletons of ser- 
mons and various odds and ends, written on bits of paper 
in his clear, small characters, generally with a mere stub 
of a pencil. Such method explains how with a large 
family, on a moderate salary, he could accomplish what 
he did; how he could from time to time be a patron of 
art and letters, make donations to colleges, contribute to 
public enterprises, and assist the countless poor that ap- 
plied to him for clothes and food and money. If any one 
individual of the many to whom he was a loving bene- 
factor, full of delicacy and sympathy, could have known 
all his good deeds, he would have seemed to that one a 
rich man, for the privations that enabled him to be liberal, 
as well as generous, were a secret. Our faithful old cook 
never got over the shock to her feelings on the occasion 
when my father interrupted her in the act of turning off 
from the door a shabby genteel beggar sadly in want of 
shoes. He hurried to his room, and changing his shoes 



288 LIFE AND LETTEBS OF 

for an older pair brought out and presented the mendicant 
with the ones he had been wearing." 

From Taormina, Sicily, April 14th, 1893, he wrote to 
his brother Charles: 

"As Mary and I were riding the other day in the tram 
car along the Villa Peale in Naples, . . . who should 
run up but Mr. Jenks, just returned from Greece, . . . 
Professor Jenks of Cornell. . . . He is one of the 
brightest and most genial gentleman I know, and Mrs. 

J is just as nice. His professorship is of Political 

Institutions, and he has a year's vacation. . . . His 
letters get him introductions to statesmen in every country, 
and he knows several languages. In Pome the chief men 
gave him interviews as long as he liked, and answered 
freely all his questions, and so it has been at the Court of 
St. James, etc." 

In the spring of 1893, being far from well, upon the 
advice of the doctor to get away from Pome he set out 
with his daughter on a trip to Southern Italy, combining 
recreation and sight-seeing with visits to churches and 
evangelists. In writing to his brothers, on this trip, be- 
sides descriptions of what he saw, there was an urgent 
invitation that each brother would send one of his 
daughters to be for a winter a guest in the home at 52 
Via Giulio Pomano. Before this journey was over there 
were calls for him to come to Northern Italy. On this 
trip, from Messina, he wrote to one of his sons : 

"For some time I had been, invited to come and baptize 
several persons, who, from Poman Catholicism, had come 
to the gospel through the influence and teaching of Signor 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 289 

Antonio Fiori, a Baptist, and a commercial traveller. 
Yesterday morning after our coffee, gotten at a nice cafe, 
I left Mary to wander, and hied me to the place indicated. 
I found a mother and her two daughters, with whom a 
very satisfactory conversation was had; the young ladies 
specially impressed me with their intelligence and de- 
cision. The brother, who was in the civil service, was sent 
for but not found, so I left, saying I would remain in my 
room at their disposition. Later he called on me with a 
friend (a Brigadiere di Finanza), also a disciple, and 
asking for baptism. We arranged for the rite at a hydro- 
pathic at 5 p. m. At that hour and place I baptized 
all of them. It was on the ground floor, in a lovely flower 
garden. The people were respectful and sympathetic, 
and all went well. Before the baptism, we had a little 
service in the parlour. . . . Only two other persons, 
besides the candidates and Mary and me, were present — 
friends of the parties. We then went to the Berti home, 
and spent an hour in singing, conversation, prayer. 
Vermut and biscotti were served. There is a dear 
little girl, the youngest, perhaps ten, who, I trust, loves the 
Saviour, and who has witnessed for Him and His truth 
among the neighbors in a modest, simple way. Then 
there is another son, a fine boy of sixteen or seventeen, 
who seemed to enjoy the service, though he was not, 
probably could not be, at the baptizing. When we left 
for our hotel the young people proposed to accompany us. 
Young Signor Berti explained to me that he always took 
his sisters out in the evening, as they had few friends or 
recreations. I treated the party to ices, six of which, not 



290 LIFE AND LETTEES OF 

mezzi, costing thirty sous, to which I added six for the 
waiter. After vermut and then a citron ice, I did not like 
to eat, so went supperless to bed." 

Not long after this trip to Sicily came one to the mission 
stations in Sardinia : 

" . 7 . And so, last Friday, at noon, I started, but 
the train being detained, and lingering over five hours on 
the road, Civita Vecchia was reached just after the 
steamer was gone. It was very vexatious, but I made the 
best of it and passed the twenty-four hours there not un- 
pleasantly, reading, and walking by the sea, or looking 
about the port. The question was as to the course of 
duty. My steamer ticket was already bought, or I would 
probably have returned to Rome. The other alternatives 
were to stay forty-eight hours more at Civita Vecchia or 
push on and spend the Sunday on the train, which last 
I decided to do. The voyage was not bad exactly, but 
the rain drove me below, and I passed an almost sleep- 
less night. One episode was very gratifying, a long con- 
versation with two ingenuous young soldiers (sergeants) 
going to their regiments. One of them was in a peculiarly 
tender frame of mind, having just lost his mother. I took 
their addresses and promised to send them Testaments, 
which yesterday I did. I wondered if I had been allowed 
to miss the Friday night steamer in order to have this 
interview. Pray for these two precious young men, 
sincere Catholics, piously inclined, but till then ignorant 
of the gospel, and withal truly interesting, such as Jesus 
would love, as He did the young ruler. From 5.30 in 
the morning till the same hour in the evening, I was on 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 291 

the train, in a compartment to myself (except for the 
last few miles), and, what with my New Testament, the 
Examiner and Milman's History of Latin Christianity, 
and my own thoughts, and admiring the works of God, the 
day was passed as it might have been in my own study, 
and certainly no one was influenced by my example in 
favor of Sunday travelling. I hated to be on the train 
on that day, and yet I could not see that I did wrong. 
Several brethren, including Signor Arbanasich, met me 
at the station and I was soon under the sheltering care of 
the Moors, and an hour or so later at the meeting. Mon- 
day night we had another service and I spoke on I Cor. 
xiii. To-night I expect to preach, and then to leave very 
early to-morrow morning for Iglesias, where we shall open 
a new locale, and I shall meet Brethren Tortonese and 
Cossu." 

During the summer of 1893, Dr. Taylor and his 
daughter spent a season in Switzerland. Up to this time 
expense had always prohibited such a sojourn. Now as 
there were only two, the cost was not such a barrier, and, 
besides, Dr. Taylor's health called for a complete change 
of climate. In a letter to his younger son, on August 6th, 
from Pension Pfister, Interlaken, he wrote : 

" On the 25th ultimo, we came third class 

by rail over the famous Briinig pass, and then by steamer 
on Lake Brientz to this place. We find Interlaken charm- 
ing. ... Of course you know, or think, at once that 
the name Interlaken simply describes its position [here 
is inserted a sketch, showing the two lakes, etc.]. One of 
the beauties of this place is its shade trees, many of them 



292 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the growth, one would think, of centuries, and as one 
walks on the hills and mountains around, it is on well- 
graded paths and through tall balsamic firs and pines, sug- 
gesting the Black Forest, while here and there are com- 
fortable seats, bearing the names of Byron, Goethe, 
Shakespeare, etc. . . . One of the perfect days Mary 
and I went by train third class to Lauterbrunnen, and 
having seen the Staubach falls we went and visited the 
Trummebach falls. This last involved a walk of some 
three hours, going and returning, and gave us a keen 
appetite for the lunch which Fraulein Pfister had put up 
for us, and which we ate at a quiet restaurant. 
This function finished, we took a rack and pinion train 
which carried us up nearly perpendicularly to a point 
where we changed to one run by electricity that bore us to 
Miirren. The view en route was stupendous, but clouds 
and rain soon came up and we were glad to hurry down, 
but feeling that, if like the King of France, we were well 
repaid for the time and money spent. Many more people 
wanted to come down from Miirren than there were seats 
for, but though burly Germans pushed and struggled, some 
of them were left behind, while we two succeeded in get- 
ting aboard. In changing trains for the steeper part, the 
number that could be carried was reduced one-half, but 
again fortune or Providence combined with our own enter- 
prise to make us of the favored few. We came back at 
night feeling that it had been a rare day. But the next 
was even better. We were in the act of buying railroad 
tickets for Grindelwald when Mary suggested that we go 
instead by carriage. I, of course, agreed, and soon out of 



EEV. GEOEGE BOAEDMAN TAYEOE, D. D. 293 

several applicants she had combined with a little white- 
headed old driver with a small, comfortable carriage, and 
a vigorous, generous horse. Going and returning we had 
a fine time amid lovely scenery, the Jungfrau, the Wetter- 
horn, the Eiger, the Schreiberhorn, rising in majesty 
before us on one side. From Grindelwald we walked to 
the upper glacier of the Wetterhorn, and entered the ice 
grotto. It all occupied some three and one-half hours, 
and we were very tired when it was done. I suffered 
much from the hot sun. This time we struck a very swell 
restaurant, and under the trees, surrounded by boarders 
and tourists like ourselves, we ate our rolls and meat and 
raspberries that we had brought from the pension and 
drank a pitcher of milk brought by a waiter in a dress 
coat, who stepped and looked as if the place and all the 
mountains and glaciers around belonged just to him. 
. When we came, all but us were either Russian, 

German or Belgians. Since then a lady, Mrs. D , 

from Massachusetts, has come with her three daughters, 
one of them rather pretty and more simpatica than. pretty. 
As they seemed rather bored, we have shown them some 
slight attentions. . . . Do not think of us as gay. 
I have mission work every day. Mary is reading French 
and German and picking up all she can in conversation. 
Last Sunday she went to the Scotch Church and this 
morning to the German. I have read at home but think 
of going to one of the churches this p. m., for though I 
don't hear, yet I love, or ought to, the place where the 
saints gather to worship God. I trust I do." 

The following letter from Dr. H. H. Harris, Secretary 



294 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ad interim of the Foreign Mission Board, explains itself. 
Dr. Taylor by strict economy was able to do what many 
men would have counted impossible: 

"Richmond, Va., August 11th, 1893. 
"Rev. George. B. Taylor, D. D., 

"Rome, Italy. 

"My dear Brother — Yours of the 30th ultimo, written 
from Interlaken, is received, and we are very much obliged 
for the measure of relief which you are able to afford in 
the matter of your own salary. The treasurer of another 
mission has drawn on us, not simply for one month in ad- 
vance as allowed, but for three months, and has put us in 
very great embarrassment. All our banks in this city have 
to-day suspended paying in currency any check for a 
larger amount than $50. Under the circumstances they 
cannot lend, as they have heretofore done, to the Board. 
The outlook is very gloomy but I hope will be brighter 
before this reaches you. . . " 

During the following winter (189 3-' 94) he alludes in 
several letters to some of the books he was reading, — Mil- 
man's Latin Christianity, Macaulay, Pepys, Life of Victor 
Emmanuel (by a sister of the editor of The Nation) , 
History of the Council of Trent in Italian, by Paolo 
Sarpi, La Vie de San Francois d'Assisi, by Sabatier, 
History of the Free Churches of Italy, and to some of the 
people he and his daughter were meeting, among them the 
granddaughter of George Sand, Mr. Jones, the American 
Consul, and his sister Miss Noble Jones, and Miss Bertha 
Willingham "a member of George's church." 

Writing to his older son, June 9th, 1894, he quotes 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 295 

from a letter from Professor Harris. Dr. Taylor had 
thought of resigning, in view of his feeble health. He 
wrote : 

" . . . Yesterday I received a letter from Dr. 
H. H. Harris, in the absence in Mexico of Dr. Willing- 
ham, assuring me that a new rule of the Board against 
which, as treasurer of the Italian Mission, I had pro- 
tested, would not apply to me or to my mission; and 
concluding with these words : 'Pardon me for adding that 
the Board would not hear for a moment to the acceptance 
of your resignation. We appreciate more than I can tell 
the value of your services.' My heart had been divided 
between the pain of giving up this work, and making a 
new start so late in life, and the great pleasure of being 
near or with you. . . . But now the question seems 
settled. I could not abandon this work, and so it is 
probable that here I stay till death. And I shall stay 
more content since that appreciative word from the presi- 
dent of the Board. O that I may be approved of Christ, 
which is the main thing!" 

In a letter dated Torre Pellice, June 26th, 1894, written 
to his older daughter, he makes references to the Misses 
Edith and Louise Draper, two young ladies from Holyoke, 
Mass., who had come to Rome with a letter of introduction 
to the Taylors from the Rev. Robert Walker, of Naples, 
and with whom Dr. Taylor and his daughter spent a 
number of weeks in the Tyrol during that summer. 
Little did he dream that a few years later Miss Louise 
Draper would become the wife of his son Spotswood. 

In October, 1894, the chapel at Miglionico was dedi- 



296 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

cated. In a letter to his older daughter, Dr. Taylor 
describes the occasion: 

"Mr. Eager and I worked until ten preparing our ad- 
dresses. As we moved towards the chapel we met a band 
whose piping I supposed to be in our honor (as we had 
been serenaded last night), and I was preparing to smile 
on them, when, 'This is the opposition band,' explained 
Piccinni ; but a little further on was a much larger one 
discoursing sweet music, and it was suggested that in re- 
turn for their homage we should pause a few moments, 
which we did. The streets were crowded with people, who 
eyed us curiously but not with hostility; in fact, many 
men raised their hats. The house was crowded. After 
a stanza sung, I made the dedicatory prayer ; then Piccinni 
read a chapter and spoke, concluding with some well 
chosen words of self-defence; next I made the address 
of circostanza and enjoyed it with so many people listen- 
ing earnestly; finally Mr. Eager spoke and prayed; and 
so in an hour and a quarter all was over; we thought it 
best to make the service short. ... Of course the 
clericals made a counter movement, having a new crucifix 
arrive; at first the authorities forbade a procession, but 
since, under the pressure of the priests, and in dis- 
obedience to the laws, have conceded it. . . . Nightly 
services will continue in the chapel all this week. I was 
about to forget to say that the chapel is very neat and 
satisfactory, without and within, much more ornamented 
with frescoes, etc., than I had expected ; altogether a gem." 

During the spring of 1895, Dr. J. L. M. Curry was in 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 297 

Italy, and Dr. Taylor made with him a trip to Sicily. The 
following letter refers to these events: 

" . . . Dr. and Mrs. Curry were in Rome several 
weeks, and have now gone to Greece. . . . We had 
Dr. and Mrs. Curry to dinner one night with the Rich- 
mond sculptor, Ezekiel, Mr. Piggott, the brainiest of our 
Rome preachers, and Miss Miriam Chittenden to meet 
them. Ezekiel, who is one of the great toasts of Rome, 
and both genial and a genius, made himself very agreeable, 
and as we gentlemen lingered (not to drink or smoke) 
after the ladies left the table, a most interesting discus- 
sion on art ensued, which seemed to impress Dr. C 

very much. . . . On Dr. C 's proposal he and 

I plan to go to Sicily together in a few weeks at his cost, 
which, being a gift to the Board, I hesitate not to accept." 

In a letter to one of his sons, April 7th, 1895, he refers 
to the death of Dr. John A. Broadus : 

" . . . It was a terrible shock, as I knew not of his 
illness and somehow, though he was six years my senior, 
I never thought of outliving him, and it seemed, too, that 
one so useful could not be spared. . . . Although so 
many others have written and will write of him, I still 
think I shall attempt a sketch. I have a very affectionate 
letter from Mrs. Frank Smith of the University of Vir- 
ginia, in which, after referring to the interesting reminis- 
cences in the Herald, she adds, 'But we feel that they will 
not be complete until we have heard from you.' 
Outside my own family no death has ever affected me so 
much. . . . After all I may meet my dear and 
revered friend sooner than if he lived. In any case he is 
'with Christ, which is far better.' " 



CHAPTER IX 

Visit to America — Literary Work — Theological School 

Spring still makes spring in the mind 

When sixty years are told; 
Love wakes anew this throbbing heart, 

And we are never old. 

— Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

The day becomes more solemn and serene 
When noon is past. 

— Shelley. 

In the summer of 1895 Dr. Taylor, accompanied by his 
daughter Mary, went to the United States, expecting, after 
a few brief months of rest and fellowship with loved ones 
and friends, to return in the early fall. While visiting 
his son in Appomattox Dr. Taylor was thrown from a 
buggy, and received such serious wounds on the head that 
his return to Italy was delayed until December. When 
his scars were scarcely healed he attended the meeting of 
the Baptist General Association in Petersburg, and in 
response to the request of Dr. W. H. Whitsitt, the presi- 
dent of the Seminary, addressed the students in Louisville. 
The scars on his forehead and his appearance of great 
feebleness made the touch of humor with which he began 
his address at the former place all the more effective and 
pleasant. During his visit to Louisville, Dr. Whitsitt 
drove him out to "Cave Hill" to visit the grave of Dr. 



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REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 299 

John A. Broadns. Dr. Whitsitt, in referring to this inci- 
dent, said that while standing by the grave, Dr. Taylor, 
who looked as if he might not be far from his own grave, 
remarked with buoyancy and hope : "Well, I am not think- 
ing about dying, but about living and working." This 
was a most characteristic remark ; his spirit was brave 
and young in all his many bodily ailments, and to the 
very end of his life. 

Dr. Taylor's younger son, a physician, writes thus of 
this accident, and of his father's interest in physicians 
and their science : 

"As the only surgeon within reach, it became my painful 
duty to make a long incision, and let out the blood which 
had escaped from a broken vessel, and separated the scalp 
from the skull. I dreaded the task, and should have been 
unable to go through with it but for my father's fortitude. 

"My father held the medical profession in high esteem 
and always maintained to his physicians an attitude of 
loyalty, unfortunately by no means common nowadays. 
Even when he had, from long experience of his own con- 
stitution, doubts as to the probable effects of prescription 
and treatment employed, he obeyed to the letter the 
directions of the doctor he had called in, as in honor 
bound. He was deeply interested in physiology and 
anatomy, and felt all the charm of brilliant surgery. Long 
before I was old enough to go to college I had learned from 
him of Lister's great work, and the names of pioneers in 
the scientific development of modern medicine. He was 
always hungry for new facts in science, and hailed with 
delight each new discovery. He urged upon me the im- 



300 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

portance of the so-called minor ailments, and begged me 
not to neglect them for diseases of greater interest from 
a professional standpoint. He held that in the aggregate 
more suffering came to humanity from the despised and 
vulgar headache, backache, sore throat, boil, etc., than from 
maladies of rare, and more distressing kind, and that 
doctors were under the temptation of slighting the former 
for the latter. He insisted on my learning to look at each 
case from the standpoint of the patient. He early im- 
pressed upon me the importance of hygiene and dietetics, 
and urged me to keep in sight the idiosyncrasies of the 
individual, rightly putting them ahead of drugs and 
stereotyped rules in healing the sick." 

From Salem, Va., on October 23rd, 1895, he wrote 
to one of his sons : 

" . My railroad journey was felicitous. 

Hardly was it begun when I met two old friends, Murray, 
formerly pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Greenville, 
Va., and Mcllwaine, with whom I was at the University 
of Virginia, and who was converted during a revival there. 
He was Corresponding Secretary of their Foreign 
Mission Board, and is now president of Hampden- 
Sidney. Murray is pastor of the College Church, and is 
a singularly genial and catholic-spirited fellow — at least 
that is the impression he has always made on me. Mc- 
llwaine invited me to Hampden-Sidney. . . . Matty, 
my niece, met me at the train. . . . The table fare 
is delicious, and my appetite fine with equivalent digestion. 
. Yesterday Brethren Strouse and Hobday called, 
and in the p. m. the latter sent his carriage, and I went to 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 301 

the Orphanage and spoke three or four minutes on 
"Hands" to the children who seem of a higher order 
than are generally found in such institutions. ... I 
expect to visit the College [Roanoke College] to-day or 
to-morrow. ... At this point a long visit from 
Professor Cocke of Hollins. ... I was glad to meet 
him, as he is an old friend. He gave me a cordial invita- 
tion to visit Hollins, offering to send a carriage for me. 
Much have I thought of the pleasant weeks under 
your roof." 

A few days later he writes to his brother James, from 
Appomattox, describing his visit to the Hebron Church 
neighborhood : 

" . . . I found Brother Davidson waiting with an 
open carriage. . . . The eight miles drive to Brother 
Davidson's through the lovely forests was really refresh- 
ing after the heat of the train. Saturday I spoke in the 
a. m., and preached a short sermon in the p. m., and yes- 
terday I first addressed the Sunday school on 'Boys and 
Girls in Italy,' and then spoke for an hour on 'Italy and 
the Italian Mission' to a crowded, attentive congregation. 
Yesterday we came to Brother Taylor's, one of 
the Hebron members. ... I hope, Brother James, 
you will pray for me that my every spiritual need may 
be supplied, and that I may have all needed endowment 
for the work to which God has called me." 

From Richmond and the home of Dr. A. E. Dickinson, 
where he had quite a severe illness, he wrote November 
24th, 1895, to his daughter Susy: 

. . I am feeling very weak and poorly after 



u 



302 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

my attack, which dates from Tuesday last." On the same 
day he wrote to one of his sons: " . . . When 
Brethren Winston, A. B. Clarke, J. C. Williams and John 
Pollard were announced (from the Board) I went down, 
and after the first moment of embarrassment enjoyed 
their somewhat prolonged call. Then came Drs. Willing- 
ham and Landrum, both very jolly. In the evening I had 
a deal of conversation with Professor Hovey. ... I 
was sorry that I missed President Boatwright and William 
Thomas, who came when I was in my feverish sleep. I 
shall call on them when I get well. I had a very bad 
night, coughing incessantly — a hard cough — a new ex- 
perience for me." 

On December 7th, 1895, he sailed from New York, 
with his daughter Mary, on the Kaiser Wilhelm II for 
Naples. Soon, he was hard at work again, writing mis- 
sion letters, preaching, making long, long journeys. From 
Naples on May 16th, 1896, he wrote to his brother 
Charles : 

"It was pleasant indeed to receive your long, interest- 
ing letter of the 26th ultimo, which was even the more 
welcome as I am away from home, and though in the 
midst of the most beautiful scenes, and busy with books 
and pen, am at times a bit lonely. At the table there is 
pleasant chat, but the rest of the time I read and write 
in my room, and in the afternoons climb the hills, linger 
by the seaside or sit outside a cafe, with a cup of black 
coffee, and the morning's paper, ever glancing up at the 
busy, gay scene before me. One almost doubts here 
whether the full tide of existence which Johnson thought 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 303 

flowed through Fleet Street is not to be found at certain 
points of this city, while the sights of the Neapolitan 
narrow, steep streets have perhaps no parallel elsewhere. 
I have ever preferred human life to art, and love to loiter 
along, and linger over whatever arrests the eye or im- 
presses the mind or heart. For three nights I have at- 
tended service and spoken in our new locale in a great 
thoroughfare just opened. . . . From my window I 
enjoy a magnificent view of the Bay, the slipper-shaped 
isle of Capri, the hundreds of fishing smacks, and the 
passing steamers, while a minute's walk brings Vesuvius 
into range. This pension life with its dinner at night is 
very enjoyable, but one is apt to eat too much and for a 
constancy I prefer the 'plain living' of home ; as to 'high 
thinking,' that, as well as books, may be carried with 
one — i. e., if he has it in him to carry. Here all depends 
on the personal equation. . . . Prepare the Yates 
Memoir by all means ; we have none too many good 
religious biographies. I like the plan of letting a man 
tell his own story. Per contra, I like as well, in many 
cases, biographies done in the style of the English Men 
of Letters. Life is short." 

In a letter to his daughter Mary, from Messina, May 
22nd, 1896, Dr. Taylor refers to the Berti family, mem- 
bers of which had been baptized by Dr. Taylor, there being 
no church in Messina: 

" . . . I believe this Berti family makes a con- 
tinual propaganda of the gospel. I was quite unwilling 
to even seem to press the baptism of Anita .... 
so I simply said that if she still desired it and the mother 



304 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and Teresa fully approved it, to come to me this morning 
at ten. The three did come. . . . After the rite we 
had a short service in the parlour." 

In a letter written from Rome he describes events in 
the trip just referred to. He says : 

" . . . I have seldom taken so long a trip, at once 
so pleasant, with so unbroken health and so full of work 
and of encouragement in regard to our churches. The 
country was lovely, the weather (generally) fine, and 
many were the interviews and conversations, interesting at 
the time, and destined, I trust with God's blessing, to bear 
precious fruit. I seemed to get into the spirit of travel, 
the world seemed beautiful ; it was a sort of relaxation 
from the desk and the pen, and altogether, though glad 
to get back to sweet home, and my dear Mary, I feel that 
the trip did me good, and it is remembered with pleasure. 
I came near having a sunstroke en route and 
suffered with my head, but bathed it in very hot water 
as by suggestion of Dr. R. H. Graves. ... I was 
fifteen hours on steamer, second class, to Messina. It was 
a big thing bound for Bombay, and many of the sailors 
and others were dark skinned, and dressed in white 
clothes, scanty and thin, so as to reveal their lithe figures. 
On board was a clerical party of several nationalities 
bound for the scene of war in Abyssinia, and great was the 
reclaim in the R. C. papers, and great the demonstration 
on their departure from Naples. One of them, a Cap- 
uchin, tried to convert me, and professed to be horror 
struck at my state, but I routed him with a single text: 
'He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life.' " 



KEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOK, D. D. 305 

While in America a publisher had asked him to prepare 
a popular book on Italy. The next letter shows him at 
work on it : 

u . . . I drive the pen all the morning, save when 
interrupted, but do not seem to make much progress. 
I need many books to write mine. . . . It's 
a great, and often useless, bother getting them or trying 
to get them from the V. E. Library. . . . Yesterday 
morning and this I produced but three pages like this, 
which does not take me ten minutes to write, but then I 
wrote them over two or three times, and was constantly 
hunting up names, etc., to be sure, and there were also 
annoying interruptions." 

The next letter, written from the Hotel Barra di Ferro, 
Cuneo, under date of June 27th, gives incidents in another 
missionary journey: 

" . . Thursday night I preached to a house full 

of serious, attentive folks. TVhen I was about to close 

the service, Signor C advanced with an illuminated 

parchment, a testimonial to me from the church on the 
occasion of my first visit. You know I am not the sort 
of man to draw to me things of that sort, and, it being 
my first received in Italy, I was surprised and rather 
pleased." 

In a letter to his daughter Mary, he gives other ex- 
periences of the same trip : 

"... The weather was cold and wet (my straw 
hat seemed absurdly out of place and time, and most folks 
turned for a second look, especially as there was no charge) 
and I was under it. Sunday morning it was still 



306 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

raining, with clouds like lead. But I rose at six, paddled 
through the rain to a cafe, and then to the steam tram 
which bore us 8 kilometers to S. Dalmazio, where we took 
carriages and drove several miles among the mountains 
along the great highway leading to the Thermae of Vinadio. 
When the main road had to be left, the drivers declined to 
go further, so we footed it over a rough mountain way, 
through mud and water regardless, for some three-quarters 
of an hour to Castellato, our destination. . . . The 
congregation was small. . . . But the brethren 
present impressed me favorably, and specially our host 
showed himself a real gentleman as well as devout. It 
hurt me that his tall, straight, handsome wife had to stay, 
or did stay, in the kitchen to cook a dinner for the caravan, 
and the smoke and smell penetrated into the room where 
we were. The meal was very fair, and, with truest 
courtesy, I was not urged to partake of any dish I did not 
show a wish for. . . . The mountains have been for 
several days partly covered with snow, and the view of 
Mt. Viso and others, as I came hither, was really splendid." 

On the same trip from Venice, writing to one of his 
sons on July 10th, 1896, he referred to his recent visit 
to Appomattox, and to other matters : 

"... The old Virginia food of the inn was so 
delicious — its waffles and fried chicken and milk, and so 
many other toothsome things. It was so pleasant, too, to 
be in that country air. . . . Your people's great 
kindness also touched my heart, for much as I have re- 
ceived, always and everywhere, that was something special. 
I rose at four this morning, after vain efforts 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 307 

to get more sleep, but dozed a bit on the sofa after dress- 
ing. It may seem strange to linger where there is so 
much discomfort on the trip. This is explained: that I 
wish not only to see the minister, but to attend a service 
at each place, and to do this involves delay, unless a line 
of special appointments could be made, so that I need 
not tarry more than one night, or at most two nights, at 
each place." 

On another missionary journey he wrote, November 
12th, 1896, from Genoa, to his sister Mary: 

"Waiting here half sick for my train it is a pleasure 
to pen you a poor line. . . . Yesterday from ten in 
the morning to dusk, I rode through an enchanted region 
— the Western Riviera — from Cannes, in France, to this 
place, the sea on one side, mountains, terraced vineyards, 
gardens with olives, palms, pines and cedars and flowers 
everywhere on the other side, and, above, the loveliest 
sky. But for the first part of the way I was nauseated, 
and later weak in consequence. . . . Last night I 
suffered, and feel little refreshed this morning, and poorly 
fitted for a long journey. But I have learned to maintain 
a certain tranquillity of spirit, which is restful, or at 
least in the minimum degree exhaustive, even to the body. 
Two days ago I was in fine spirits, and being in 
France, I concocted a French postal to Mary for her 
amusement. I read that language with sufficient ease to 
read aught that interests me. The landlord at Cannes 
lent me a French book in which I became so much in- 
terested that I am taking it along, with his permission, to 
finish, and return by post. Cannes and Nice are charm- 



308 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ing cities with such a climate, such scenery of sky and 
land, and the Mediterranean, that I do not wonder they 
are crowded with rich folks, many of them sick, of every 
land ; and the same might be said of San Remo. One 
can understand how Garibaldi could not forgive Count 
Cavour for ceding Nice, his birthplace, to Louis Napoleon, 
even in return for valid help versus Austria. All over Nice 
and Cannes are comfortable benches on which wayfarers 
may rest, as I did in the former city while munching an 
apple from Rome. In San Remo, Sunday morning, I 
saw such numbers of boys and girls, men and women, 
bearing along bunches, baskets of flowers, chiefly chrysan- 
themums of choicest kind, and many hues, but also roses 
and other flowers, that I surmised it was Decoration Day, 
and joined them. Every grave and monument was 
covered — I have never seen so many and so lovely chrys- 
anthemums before or elsewhere. Many of the graves were 
stuck all around with lighted candles, which flickered and 
sputtered in the wind." 

It is impossible to give all the letters describing the 
many trips Dr. Taylor made among the churches, or even 
to mention all the trips. The next letter describes a 
journey to Sicily and bears date, Rome, April, 1st, 1898. 
It refers to the widow and daughter of Mr. Mudie, the 
founder of the great circulating library in London, which 
sends books all over England : 

" We finished up Palermo, driving through 

the Favorita grounds, buying candied fruits for Susy and 
a box of them for some friends who have been kind to her. 
. . . The sail to Naples was ideally smooth and rapid, 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMM TAYLOR, D. D. 309 

but as the stewards allow no fresh air, I did not go 
below; but after two hours on deck, when it became quite 
cold, I sat bolt upright the whole night in the 
saloon. . . . Mary is at Frascati visiting the 
Mudies. . . . Susy has been going to concerts and 
dinings and drives, which I have urged her to accept. I 
have been very hard at work over letters, accounts and 
several worrying problems which arose suddenly in my 
absence from Rome. . . . The trip despite sickness 
greatly refreshed me, giving strength for the burdens of 
the work, for I largely laid care and pen aside for two 
weeks, and was much in the open air. To-morrow Susy and 
I go to Frascati for two days, after which the family life 
will be resumed, except, indeed, that I leave for another 
trip the last of the week. The brethren of Gravina have 
taken themselves a new and ground floor locale, and beg 
me to be with them at the three days' opening, May 15th, 
16th and 17th, when also candidates, long waiting, and 
long proved, will be baptized. A week from to-day I am 
to be at Miglionico, where the minister has long begged, 
as a great favor, a visit from me. . . . This next 
trip I shall be alone, but I have notified the brethren of 
my deafness and ... I shall, I trust, get on, if not 
swimmingly at least sufficiently." 

The next letter, dated Gravina delle Paglie, is ad- 
dressed to his daughter Susy: 

" . . . I suppose that I am the guest of the 
church, as on a previous occasion, but I am most com- 
fortably lodged and entertained by the Fiori family, who 
show me every attention and kindness, and appear to the 



310 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

greatest advantage in their own home. ... I was 
not in the best trim for preaching Sunday, and yesterday 
succumbed and went to bed, and this morning they have 
brought me quinine, honey, etc. On Sunday I baptized five 
persons. The arrangements were excellent, and showed 
that money and care had been used in making them. 
The new locale is very nice, and the meetings 
were very remarkable for the crowd, the order, and the 
attention. . . . The work at Gravina is most promis- 
ing, and a great change has come over the people since 
the clerical preachers exhorted: 'Say with me, O people, 
Death to the Protestants !' " 

Another stage in the same journey is described in a 
letter to one of his sons. His courage and indomitable 
spirit are shown: 

" . . . I arrived [at Miglionico] really ill and 
prostrated, and went right to bed, and, as usual, when I 
have fever, slept some fifteen hours right along. All 
Sunday I lay in bed, better, but not up to anything. The 
members, the plainest and roughest, but most simple- 
hearted people, men and women, came to see me, kissing 
my hands as they entered and left. I remained passive, 
not trying to hear or to speak save a 'God bless you.' 
Despite the utmost kindness of Piccinni and his wife, 
and many favorable circumstances, I was not comfortable, 
and longed for home; so, Monday, I insisted on leaving, 
and with a pillow and shawls, and the whole carriage for 
Piccinni and me, I got to the railroad . . . and in 
fact made the journey of seven hours and over by rail to 
Naples, where I arrived at 8.30 p. m. very tired and worn 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 311 

out, but apparently not otherwise the worse ; but the night 
was not refreshing, and in the morning I hated to leave 
my bed, but the attraction of home was so strong that 
up I got. The compartment was crowded, and, despite the 
kindness of two or three persons along, who felt sorry for 
me, the journey was a martyrdom, and I took fresh cold, 
being obliged, when I felt sinking, to put my head at the 
open window which had been given me by those kind 
persons. But I got home, and, after, just a week in bed, 
watched over, cared for, and angelically ministered to by 
your sweet sisters. ... I rose at noon yesterday, 
but feeling weak and depressed to-day ; however, I am al- 
most perfectly myself again." 

Yet another trip is spoken of in the next letter, which 
is dated Torre Pellice, September 21st, 1898 : 

" The fact is I had a bad time Friday night 

and Saturday with cold, causing pain and disturbance, 
and I lay on the sofa Saturday, my one hope and prayer 
being that I might be able to fill my appointment at 
Casteletto the next day, the which I did, by a tour de 
force, and despite weakness." 

As an illustration of how broad his sympathies were, 
the following extract from a letter to his brother Charles 
may be given. The work at home as well as that in Italy 
rested on his heart. The date of this letter is Rome, April 
20th, 1899: 

"There is a matter in our mission which has been, and 
still is, causing me constant solicitude, and calling forth 
my best thinking and planning, and driving me to the 
throne of grace. As there are always such matters in 



312 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

this work, does it not seem strange that I should bother 
myself with affairs at home ! Yet, so it is, for the mind 
of man has a wide sweep and the Christian heart must 
be interested in all that relates to the cause of Christ the 
world over, and I have pondered no little over the state 
of our Southern Zion, it seeming to me that a grave crisis 
is at hand, and that there is danger, no matter how the 
Whitsitt case may be decided." 

And the letter goes on to discuss the Whitsitt situation 
at length. 

On July 30th, 1899, he wrote to his sister, Mrs. James 
B. Taylor, giving some description of Airolo, Switzer- 
land, and the surrounding country, whither he had gone, 
at the direction of the physician, trying to get rid of his 
malarial trouble : 

" . . . We have here daily and hourly before us 
an instance of the instability of the most stable, earthly 
things in the great landslide of last December, which 
destroyed houses and people, and changed, perhaps for- 
ever, the aspect of the town and its environs. Last summer 
this place was full of tourists ; now there are very few, 
for fear, it is said, that another mountain will send down 
rocks as big as houses, crushing everything before them. 
I do not, however, apprehend any special danger. There 
are so many other ways by which, without any great 
catastrophe, people make their last journey. This morn- 
ing, when half dressed, I went to close my window, for we 
sleep with open windows. The first object seen was a 
funeral procession, the coffin borne on the shoulders of 
four men, who, as all the others, walked reverently with 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 313 

uncovered heads to the cemetery, a crowd of women, in 
black, following. This place, though a hundred miles from 
the Italian frontier, is largely Italian in population, and 
almost all signs and notices are in the Italian tongue. 
The mountains around are covered with grass, 
and dark firs with patches of snow on the heights. Be- 
neath, is the Ticino River, running, like mad, to Lake 
Maggiore. A few steps away is the mouth of the great 
St. Gotthard tunnel. We are more than 3,700 feet above 
the level of the sea. ... I spend much time in the 
garden, pacing the gravel paths or reading and writing 
in the shade of the firs and beeches, sub tegmine fagi, as 
Virgil would say, but not recubans. ... I was very 
unwell just before leaving Rome and suffered no little in 
the seventeen and one-half hours' railroad journey to 
Milan, and needed two days there to repair damages. 
We then spent nine days at Lugano, over the lovely lake 
of that name. Every prospect pleased, and the people 
met were not a bit vile; on the contrary, very good and 
pleasant, and we had all our meals in the open air; but 
it was about as hot as Rome. We had two sails on the 
lake, saw Luini's famous frescoes, admired the tall stone 
tower, and the girls went by steamer and diligence over 
Lake Como and to the city of Como, the home of Volta, 
who invented the Voltaic Pile, and, where, in his honor, 
an electrical exposition was held this summer till destroyed 
by fire, and they are now trying to rebuild and renew it. 
Early last Monday morning we left, third-class, on a slow 
train for this place. We seemed coming thus at leisure to 
find more beauty in the route than we had ever seen in any 



314 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

previous journey over it in a rushing express train, and 
specially admired the waterfalls, and the loops of the 
road, which winds up the mountains like a corkscrew. 
Of course my mission correspondence is not abated, at least 
a score of letters having come in these last days, and yes- 
terday I arranged to send off some 12,000 francs to 
seventeen evangelists. There arrive, besides, letters from 
all kinds and conditions of men, wanting this, that and the 
other of me, and I have written an article for the 
Foreign Mission Journal, and am asked for one for 
the Seminary Magazine. There is also reading matter 
accessible. . . . There is also much to see, tourists 
on foot arriving and passing, and the mountains are an 
endless study." 

Perhaps frequent enough quotations have not been made 
in these pages from Dr. Taylor's annual reports to the 
Board, and to the Convention. These reports he made 
with great care, and it was often a source of regret to him 
that the minutes of the Southern Baptist Convention, 
containing full accounts of the work on the several fields of 
the Convention, were not more read by the brotherhood. 
The following extracts are from his report to the Con- 
vention of 1900, which met at Hot Springs : 

"The responsibilities of the mission, and also its oppor- 
tunities, were enlarged by taking over the work in the 
south, of the English Baptist Missionary Society, which 
wished to concentrate its energies in the north of Italy. 
This work consisted of a church of baptized believers in 
Naples, and another at Calitri, a mountain town in the 
Province of Avellino, with their respective places of meet- 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 315 

ing. We also accepted the small body of communicants 
and locale in Naples, Count Papengouth leaving the 
city. To carry on the work of these three churches, two 
additional evangelists were accepted, each of whom is an 
acquisition to our evangelizing force. 

"The locale at Caserta, near Naples, with a small con- 
gregation, but no communicants, was also taken over by us 
from our English brethren. 

"Besides, by the foregoing, our mission was enlarged by 
three new and inviting fields, into which we were provi- 
dentially led. 

"The entire new work assumed in 1899, with some 
needed increase of salaries and other combinations, costs 
$1,680 per annum, which is about ten per cent advance 
on the amount asked for and conceded for 1899. 

"I dare not refuse what God in His Providence laid 
upon us, and I dare not cast off on account of expense. 
He will provide for it through you, my brethren, who, led 
of Him, originated this mission and sent me out as your 
representative. No doubt this work will yet go forward 
and extend itself; it must, or else contract and recede. 
Do you ask for greater results ? The results achieved are 
perhaps more important than might at first seem. 

"The gathering into one mission of the three congre- 
gations in Naples, educated under different influences, 
was not without friction. . . . There were other 
questions, and I seemed at one time, in following the 
clear line of duty, to please none of the parties concerned, 
each thinking I leaned to one of the others, which was, of 
course, grievous to me. 



316 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

"The Italian Mission having now existed for about 
thirty years, and my own relation with it having lasted 
for nearly twenty-seven years, it seems proper to take a 
rapid glance at what has been done. 

"Not only do our statistics show twenty-four churches, 
a membership of 624 baptized believers, but at least as 
many more baptized believers have died in the faith, or 
emigrated, bearing their evangelical and denominational 
convictions to other lands. North Africa, Austria, 
Switzerland, France, and both Americas have all received 
evangelical and Baptistic influences from our mission, as 
it owes something to France, and almost everything to our 
country. 

"Despite deeply rooted prejudices, it is undeniable that 
Baptist principles have to no small extent leavened Pedo- 
baptist communities and congregations. . . . Neither 
the Evangelical Church of Italy, nor the Episcopal Metho- 
dists, nor the Waldensian Church would refuse immer- 
sion to a candidate, while the first-named has retained 
ministers essentially Baptists, who do not and would not 
sprinkle an infant, and the Waldensian Synod has intro- 
duced into its new formulary immersion for such as be- 
lieve it is their privilege and duty to be buried with 
Christ, and so exactly fulfil His last command. But it 
has to be admitted that this general — almost universal — 
recognition of the Scripturalness of immersion has not 
borne its practical fruit, refuge being taken in the idea 
that immersion is not the only baptism, or, at least, that 
other acts are allowable. A great difficulty for us is that 
in Italy every convert not from an evangelical family has 



EEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 317 

been sprinkled in his infancy by a Roman Catholic priest, 
and that all the Pedobaptist denominations are agreed in 
accepting it as valid. 

"When I came to Italy in 1873, I found, both among 
the Italians, and in the resident foreign community here, 
a most bitter and obstinate prejudice against our restricted 
communion. It was necessary for several years to defend 
it in our own and in other periodicals, explaining our 
practice, replying to objections, and not only appealing 
to the ad hominem argument, but sustaining our position 
on its own merits. The fight was so well fought that 
since that time we have met with no reproach for our 
'close' communion; indeed, many of the more intelligent 
of our Pedobaptist brethren regard it as, at least, the 
necessary corollary of the doctrine of believers' baptism. 

"On the whole, though much still remains to be done, 
it must yet be admitted that, considering the mighty 
Pedobaptist influence which comes here from England 
and America, the work of Romanism in destroying the 
religious sentiment, while weaving a vast network of ob- 
servances to nourish superstition, and turn men away from 
the Word of God and true religion, and finally the 
tremendous and manifold power of the hierarchy to op- 
pose and suffocate any evangelical movement, the Italian 
Mission has not been in vain. My own relation to it 
must soon — very soon — come to a close, but, despite 
personal infirmities, and conscious shortcomings, when I 
look upon the past and forward into the future, I thank 
God, and take courage." 

During the summer of 1900, Dr. Taylor, with his 



318 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

daughters, spent some weeks in Hungary, visiting also 
Vienna. The following letter, dated 20 Rathhausstrasse, 
Vienna, September 9th, describes some things seen and 
done on this trip : 

" . . . Mary and Susy are at the English Church 
and I have been sitting in a public garden near by, read- 
ing and observing. . . . My favorite plan is to sit 
and let the world unfold itself, panorama-fashion, before 
my eyes — old women with their baskets resting, some 
folks knitting, some embroidering, some reading, some 
smoking, some courting, while the pigeons and the birds, 
big and little, chirp, and hop about fearlessly on the 
ground or in the leafy shades. I am enchanted with 
Vienna for many other things, but specially for its lovely 
parks and gardens, and for the comfortable seats every- 
where. In Rome my only resort when tired, which I 
seem always to be, is a Roman Catholic Church, but, Oh, 
I do so much prefer the out-of-doors ! Last evening Susy 
and I went to a big cafe near by, not for ices or coffee, 
these being only the conditions of reading the newspapers. 
I doubt whether there is any other city more cosmopoli- 
tan than Vienna in this, that at the chief cafes one may 
read the newspapers of almost every language and land 
in the world. The waiters piled before us the latest 
American, French and Italian journals we asked for and 
many more of sundry tongues ; the arcade under which 
we sat was crowded, and every one else had a supply. 
What a treat it was to a paperless fellow, half starved for 
news, these many days, save at Tatra Fined, where the 
Figaro, of which I am very fond, made, with my delicious 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 319 

creamed coffee and Vienna bread and butter, an exquisite 
meal. Wherever we have been, Mary has read the Ger- 
man sheets, and has given me nice morsels, but often has 
found nothing worth reporting. . . . We had meant 
to leave ere this, but Mary was sick and would miss 
certain things, so our departure has been prorogued for 
two or three days. Indeed a fortnight is little for a city 
so rich in all that could please and instruct. We have 
gotten pretty leisurely through the chief galleries, even 
returning to some of them. There are some fine paintings 
of the great Italians, but specially has the opportunity 
been prized of studying the works of Rubens and his 
opposite Van Dyck, of Rembrandt, Diirer, and other 
northern masters, some of whom with unfamiliar names 
hold me and draw me back to their creations, often at 
once homely and beautiful. In fact I am still seeing 
with the mind's eye fine faces with the accessories of by- 
gone centuries, interiors, flower pieces and still life, 
foaming rivers, and dark tarns, corniced in steep rock 
cliffs. . . . One day we made an excursion to a lovely 
suburb on the wooded hills with a German, a masseur, 
who has been to America and Australia, a very intelli- 
gent fellow. One day I had bought a cantaloupe, a fruit 
of which I am excessively fond, and have not tasted be- 
fore for years, and served it at the breakfast table to other 
guests. Quoth this gentleman, Dr. Herman Roth, 'Here 
they cost a florin each, in America half a franc, in 
Australia two cents.' ... At Zakopane the people 
reminded me of Virginians, shaking hands so much, but 
mostly with each other, for ready as the gentlemen were 



320 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

to admit us, some of the ladies were for a time rather 
clannish. But Mary and Susy won their way and gained 
hearty encomiums. It seems we were the first Americans, 
if not English also, ever seen in those parts or by those 
people, the elite of Cracow and Warsaw, and one couple 
wrote on a card the delightful impression received. I, on 
account of my deafness, kept much in the background, but 
I liked best a lovely young lady from Warsaw in Polish 
Russia, and one day, when she was saluting others, I being 
so out of the way that I might have been left without 
rudeness, she came where I was and gave me a warm 
grasp, a sweet smile, and a graceful curtsy. What a 
heartglow it gave me and does when I think of it ! Ah, 
how little does a young person realize the pleasure and 
comfort an old man or woman may get from even a slight 
attention, a word, a smile, a simple act from those still 
in the heyday of life ! . . We go home not by the 

Semmering and Venice, but as we came, by Budapest, 
Fiume and Ancona. True, there are about 550 miles of 
railroad to Fiume, but in Hungary they have what is 
called a 'zone tariff (and Vienna is near the border), that 
is the fare is counted not by miles but by tens of miles. 
Thus the above 550 miles, and the day on the Adriatic, 
second class for the former and first class for the latter, 
cost only about $6.50 or $7. I have never travelled half 
so cheaply before, and it was one of the two factors bring- 
ing us to these lands." 

Upon a resolution of Dr. G. A. Lofton, the Convention 
at Hot Springs, in 1900, appointed a committee to report 
the following year on the feasibility of establishing a 



EEV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 321 

theological school in Rome. The next year the committee 
reported in favor of establishing such a school, having 
consulted with Dr. Taylor, who approved the plan. 

The following letter refers to Rev. C. J. F. Anderson 
and Rev. D. G. Whittinghill, who had arrived under the 
appointment of the Board to work in Italy. It is dated 
Rome, April 21st, 1901 : 

"I am hoping to go to church this morning, the first 
time this year, and I am very thankful. . . . Yes- 
terday p. m. I walked alone some three or four hundred 
yards, and after resting walked back. I have not before 
done half so much, nor have I been out before alone since 
my illness, which has been perhaps far more serious than 
my kin at home have imagined. . . . We have now 
in our home Dr. Whittinghill, the new missionary. I like 
him and trust he will do an excellent work. He has come 
out specially with reference to the Baptist Theological 
School which we hope in a year or so to establish in Rome. 
The thing will not be absolutely decided until the meet- 
ing of the Southern Baptist Convention in ISTew Orleans 
next May, but is already morally certain. Yesterday we 
had to dine with him Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, and Signor 
Paschetto. We seemed quite a Baptist family. . . 

We expect every day to have some one to meet Dr. W . 

To-day Mr. Piggott dines with us. . . . I have been 
reading in the evenings 'TourguenefT and his French 
Circle.' It is really his letters to Flaubert, George Sand, 
Zola, Daudet and other French literary celebrities. They 
reveal him as having a childlike nature in his giant body. 



322 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

I have been very much amused in reading of 
late 'The American Senator' by Anthony Trollope." 

On June 14th, 1901, Dr. Taylor wrote from Rome to 
his brother Charles, President of Wake Forest College, 
North Carolina: 

"On the 11th instant the collection of shells was shipped 
from Cagliari prepaid to Naples, where Holme & Com- 
pany bankers, well known to me, will ship it to Wake 
Forest via Norfolk. There are 4,500 shells, representing 
720 species and varieties, all from Sardinia. A complete 
catalogue goes along. Signor Arbanasich could have 
doubled the collection by including shells from the main- 
land, but he wished it to preserve its distinctive geographic 
character. I suppose, however, that he would make 
another collection, not limited to his island, and still 
another of minerals, and I would be willing to contribute 
the one and the other to your college museum, if, after 
seeing the shells now sent, you and Professor Poteat 
should think it worth while. As before offered, I will 
pay charges on them to Wake Forest. Of course they 
need pay no duty. . . . Next week we have in Rome 
an Evangelical Congress, and the meeting of the Com- 
mittee of our Baptist Union, and we shall have guests to 
stay and to partake with us. . . . Last week Dr. 
MacDonald, Continental Secretary of the Wesleyan Mis- 
sionary Conference, was twice with us, and one night we 
had a delicious dinner with him at his inn. I note it 
because so often, generally, I don't enjoy table d'hote 
dinners" 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 323 

On June 16th, 1901, he wrote to his grandson, George 
Cabell Taylor: 

"It is a great pleasure to receive to-day your letter of 
the 5th instant, telling that you had received a medal 
for improvement in writing. You certainly have im- 
proved wonderfully. ... I trust, my dear boy, you 
will one day be a writer in another and higher sense. I 
am very proud of your medal and of you, and I thank 
God for all your gifts and advantages. I have some more 
books for you, but will wait till you can read well. It is 
a good thing that the school is over now, and that you 
can spend many hours out of doors, walking, riding, 
working. But you ought to study a little every day. I 
want you to learn by heart some of the best hymns — your 
father will select them for you — and some of the great 
chapters and passages in the Bible, e. g., learn the first 
Psalm, the nineteenth and the twenty-third; also the 
twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, and the nineteenth 
chapter of John. . . " 

To one of his sons, on July 13th, 1901, he wrote: 
" . . . We are hoping to open our Theological 
School in Borne on the first of next November, but there 
are many difficulties in the way. ... I have worked 
and worried a deal on the subject, but have concluded to 
let things take their course. . . . These and several 
other matters come at a rather inopportune time for me 
and I suppose that, though changing air and scene, I 
shall not get rid of the cares of the mission at Vallombrosa 
or elsewhere, this summer. But the Lord can give peace 
even in the midst of worries if we wait on Him. Early 



324 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Thursday morning Signor Fiori came to beg me to go to 
his house and comfort his wife, as their dear, beautiful, 
first-born boy was very ill. I spent the morning there, 
trying to comfort both of the parents. It was sweet to do 
such pastoral work, but sad to see the poor little creature 
suffer." 

This summer was spent at Vallombrosa. Much of the 
life there, the picturesque country, and the farm scenes, 
greatly delighted Dr. Taylor, who, though far from well, 
kept up his correspondence, private and official. One letter 
tells of some of the fellow-boarders in the pension: 

"The latest arrivals, common but inoffensive, asked 
leave to bring 'a little dog.' The landlady objected, as 
there were too many here already. But they came with 
a most savage canine, a cross between a mastiff and a 
bull dog. Landlady said, 'You must keep him in your 
room.' 'Assassin,' for that is his name, jumped out of 
the upstairs window upon the stones and lamed himself 
pretty badly. It seems that he belonged to a Neapolitan 
butcher, and when the carabineers came to arrest the 
master, the dog flew at the throat of the carabineers, and 
could not be detached, though twice shot at. The present 
owner agreed to remove him from the city. This last 
calls himself an engineer, but rather betrayed himself at 
the supper table last night when he said, with an important 
air, that sanitary rules in Rome were now more stringent 
and that he had himself, just before coming up here, 
put into place 500 English bath-rooms." 

The next letter is dated Rome, October 27th, and is to 
one of his sons. Allusion is made to the marriage of 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 325 

Spotswood, which event took place at Yokohama, Japan, 
at which point the groom, a surgeon in the U. S. Navy, 
was stationed. The bride was Miss Louise Draper, of 
Holyoke, Mass. Mr. Wall, who is mentioned, was for 
many years at the head of the English Baptist Mission in 
Rome: 

" . . . I am feeling quite stupid just now and 
would not take pen in hand, but for my wish to send a word 
of love to you. Not only work, but worry, has beset me, 
and it has been a fight, at times almost a losing fight, to 
keep sweet and serene through it all. God only knows 
how much the poor mortal body has to do with victories 
over one, thank God, only for the time, but no doubt a 
weak heart and a tired brain sometimes seem to yield up 
to the foe 'the city of man soul/ when in reality he has 
forced only the outer gate. Charles Dickens used to say 
that for every hour a man works with his brain, indoors, 
he should spend another walking in the open air, and he 
was wont to practice what he preached in the matter. 
Last night I noted in some Richmond papers 
references to a carnival and horse fair in that city. 
Everything about the horses interested, the rest seemed 
a great ado about nothing. . . . Mary has doubtless 
written of Mr. Wall's illness, his paralysis, probably 
imminent departure and the perfect peace with which he 
is ready to loose anchor and enter the ocean of eternity." 

On December 17th, 1901, he wrote to his older son, 
telling of the visit of Mrs. MacGrath, who was on her 
way from Yokohama to the United States: 

. . It was nice to have some one just from 



it 



326 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Spotswood and Louise, . . . who sent by Anna a 
Japanese picture to me, and a perfectly splendid silk 
dressing gown to Mary." 

On December 29 th, 1901, he wrote again to his son in 
America : 

" . . . To give a Christmas feeling, I bought the 
Century and Harper for December. . . . Miss Mary 
Piggott sent me roses with the sweetest of notes. . . . 
What I gave was nothing to nobody, or about that, being 
just able to pay out to the end of the year, which is some- 
thing to be thankful for. Among the debts (I am glad 
to say liquidated this morning) were 18 lire, the balance of 
my subscription to the Trieste Mission, and 12 lire to the 
Christmas tree of our Sunday school. . . . Mr. 
Anderson has copied my financial report. He is quick 
with the pen. Somehow, I trust after 1902 to be relieved 
of the administrative work, though I love it. I believe 
I would be useful in teaching, preaching and preparing 
needed books and tracts, were my life spared. Or, I 
would be willing to go home, if it seemed best to the 
Board. Have you no idea of another visit to Rome, 
longer than the other and this time with Susy and Cabell ? 
I would pay two-thirds of the cost. . . . T'other day 
I had been groaning on my bed in pain, when Agnese, 
who had been full of sympathy, came in and found me 
in a broad, loud grin. I could not explain to her that it 
was that delightful book Mr. Dooley which had made me 
forget for a while my pain." 

The next letter refers to the formal transfer, already 
alluded to, of certain churches from the English to the 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 327 

Southern Board and also vice versa, the Italian word 
permuta meaning transfer: 

" Thursday morning I was dressed by 6.30 

o'clock and at 7 Messrs. Shaw and Landels walked in. 
That afternoon the latter and I were at the notary's for the 
best part of two hours and completed the permuta so long 
on the tapis. The Notary Colizzi, whom, you may re- 
member, was very courteous and nice, but the bill will be 
big. On account of my deafness I was required to read 
the instrument aloud and then the notary did the same. 
I gave Mr. Landels dinner at noon, and then 
drove him up to the station. He is in Naples for several 
days for consummating the sale of the rest of the real 
estate of the E. B. M. Society. ... I have finished 
Vol. I of Huxley, 500 pages octavo, and it sent me to his 
'Life of Hume' in the English Men of Letters." 

In a letter to his older son he alludes to a visit of 
his nephew, the Rev. James Taylor Dickinson, D. D. 
(then pastor of the North Orange, N. J., church), and 
wife, and speaks of his grandson, Cabell : 

" . . . Jemmy and Stella walked in on us one 
morning, having arrived at midnight, quartered at the 
Minerva and left the lecture given to the party on the 
Forum. We drove in their double carriage on the Appian 
Way. . . . Friday night Mary gave them and the 
Yokohama ladies a chic dinner. ... I crept out of 

bed to see J and S off at the station. He was 

very affectionate, and next to one of my own sons and 
daughters it was a true joy to see him, though conver- 
sation was impossible. I seemed also to get nearer than 



328 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ever before to Stella, and shall henceforth love her well. 
No child — no really boyish boy — ever loved his 
book. I was a lazy rascal till my ambition and love of 
learning waked up. Then things rushed. But before that, 
I had been absorbing useful knowledge in every pore, as 
your son is doing now." 

The next letter, written to his daughter Mary, from 
Messina, April 14th, 1902, describes a mission trip taken 
with Dr. Whittinghill to Sicily : 

"After writing and mailing my letter to you yesterday 
morning, we hurried off in search of our locale, 
which we found after climbing a steep hil] and a lot of 
stone steps. Service had begun and the house was pretty 
well packed and Signor Destefano was about to preach; 
but for once I waived delicacy and said I was willing 
to speak, which I did, only tolerably well, for I felt very 
languid and weak. ... At night the crowd was even 
greater, and after the general congregation had left we 
had the Circolo Cristo e Patria* composed of some forty 
or fifty young men, several of whom spoke. . . . 
A big old lawyer, Signor Romeo, harangued us twice, I 
should think for an hour. I felt as if I would faint from 
exhaustion, as eating had been found almost impossible. 
. . . On the one hand I was deeply touched and im- 
pressed, for the work has gained in every way since we 
were at Reggio ; but on the other hand I was badly bored 
and wearied and could only pray for patience and strength. 
It was well after eleven, when, after innumerable hand- 



*Club called "Christ and Native Land. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 329 

shakings, repeated several times to each individual, 
our room was reached; but three friends came up and 
in, for some time longer, and it was not easy to get a bit 
of bread and cold meat, and get to bed before half an 
hour or more after midnight. Oh, it was a trying day, 
though with much of encouragement and consolation! 
We rose at 6 this morning, in my case after a worrying 
night, and drove to the ferry boat, by which we waited 
nearly three hours for the belated train. ... At 
every turn, every hour of the day or night, Dr. Whitting- 
hill seems to be doing something for me, besides keeping 
me in touch with what is going on." 

Dr. Taylor's letters to his loved ones always gave large 
space to the details of the life of the one to whom he 
was writing, not being merely taken up with descriptions 
of what he was doing, saying and thinking. Lack of 
space forbids the introduction of these passages, numerous, 
loving, full of wise counsel and tender interest. The next 
letter gives some account of the little circle at their summer 
home. It is addressed to his daughter Susy and dated 
Le Mandriole (Modena), August 10th, 1902: 

" . . . Since coming here, despite a number of 
sick or feeble days, I have completed and sent off the 
estimate for 1903 for this mission with many details and 
explanations ; have sent some 25,000 lire to about thirty 
different persons, squared up the mission accounts, written 
several mission and friendly letters, an article for II 
Testimonio and another, really two, which you may 
possibly see in the Religious Herald. I am also revising 
and re-writing for the press my address on 'Religion in 



330 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Families.' We have a pretty good supply of books and 
every day the Rome and Florence papers. I peg away at 
French, but like my own language, for me much better 
than any other, even than Italian. I am hardly ever in- 
doors, save at meals and at nights, living always al fresco, 
which ought to be life-giving. Mary serves tea at 4 
o'clock to Dr. Whittinghill and me, and we have just re- 
ceived a tin box full of crackers ordered from Rome, but 
I never touch one, three meals being enough for me. Day 
before yesterday we began to play boccie after tea, and 
it is a great resource to me who can't walk much in the 
mountains." 

Susy, Dr. Taylor's younger daughter, while on a visit 
to her cousins, the family of J. Appleton Wilson, Esq., 
at their summer home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
during a severe illness was attended by young Dr. Buckler 
of Baltimore. Dr. Taylor refers to this trying experience, 
writing on August 23rd, 1902, from Le Mandriole: 

" . . . The thought of that dear child ill and 
suffering, and so far away, would be unbearable but for 
being able to commit her to the hands of our almighty 
and all merciful Father. In one way I love life and cling 
to my dear ones as well as ever, but I am conscious of a 
heart somewhat subdued and chastened through the in- 
creasing sense of old age, and through so many pains and 
sicknesses, showing that little by little my Father is 
taking down the tabernacle in which I, my true self, have 
been dwelling now nearly seventy years, and I would fain 
believe that these experiences have been somewhat blessed 
to my soul. I am so grateful to cousins Virginia, Mary, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 331 

Adelaide and Appleton for their loving kindness to my 
sweet Susy. May onr Father reward them for it, for I 
never can. ... I remember Drs. John and Thomas 
Buckler as famous all over Virginia, and the latter, who 
afterwards married Dr. Fuller's daughter, helped me much 
in the early fifties, as I had occasion to consult him more 
than once. I am sure Susy could have no better physician, 
and I, being old, can afford to say that I believe in young 
men. . . . Mary's gentle and unwearying kindness 
in waiting on me and nursing me, almost as one would a 
helpless infant, in my late attacks, and her skill not 
surpassed by any trained nurse, I can only leave you to 
imagine ; for I cannot describe it, and it has recalled her 
and Susy's nursing me through two long spells, and in 
sundry of my minor ailments." 

The next letter, describing a visit to Trieste, is to his 
daughter Mary and is dated, Cappello Nero, Venice, 
September 29th, 1902: 

" . How changed the great Piazza, and how 

circumscribed, a considerable portion being fenced off; 
while, instead of the glorious campanile, is a mass of debris 
a story and a half high, and the corridor of the Royal 
Library is still open and unrepaired ! We gon- 

dolaed out to the steamship (a Lloyd), passing several 
barks brilliant with Chinese lanterns. It was now about 
9, and till 11 we sat on deck in steamer chairs and I dozed 
a bit despite the fascinating scene. At 11 we went below 
and had a fairly restful night, I being just conscious when 
the boat started. . . . We reached Trieste about 6 or 
6.30 Sunday morning, and, not being met, as we had 



332 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

expected, drove to the hotel of the Buon Pas tore, roomy 
but unpretending, and serving our purpose entirely. Not 
knowing either the locality or hour of service, I found 
out after breakfast, by long search in the city directory, 
the street and number of the Y. M. C. A. (Christlich 
Verein), and by several enquiries en route reached the 
place. There was a good meeting. . . . We returned 
to the inn for dinner, resisting the kind and hospitable 
invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Waschitz by promising to go 
there at night. . . . The Bora blew cold and furious 
at night, and at last my heavy surtout was most welcome. 
There were three guests besides us, and the party of seven 
had six nationalities. The dinner was really delicious, 
and, best of all, digestible and digested. It was past eleven 
ere I got to bed . . . and we were called at 5.30 this 
morning, the world still dark as Erebus, . . . and by 
10.47 . . . were in Venice again, coffeeless and with 
only a picked-up rusk en route." 

The trip, of which the visit to Trieste formed a part, was 
some forty days in duration to a number of the churches, 
Dr. Taylor's travelling companion being Dr. Whitting- 
hill. Dr. Taylor was quite sick in Florence. He reached 
home, however, and before long was off for another trip, 
having in the meantime, as one letter tells, welcomed to 
his home the Rev. Dr. E. C. Dargan (at that time a 
professor in the S. B. T. Seminary at Louisville, and now 
pastor of the First Baptist Church, Macon, Ga.) with his 
wife and two sons. The next letter, dated November 
9th, is from Avellino, in Southern Italy, where one of the 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 333 

stations is located. Dr. Whittinghill is again his fellow- 
traveller : 

" ... At noon we took second-class round-trip 
tickets for this place. En route it rained merrily and it 
was so doing when we arrived here. The remains of your 
delicious lunch, with bread and a couple of apples and 
a big bunch of grapes picked up en route, made us a very 
sufficient repast on the train. Fruit, even fresh figs, 
seemed abundant as we came on, and everywhere were 
fruit trees. . . . The country, you remember, is 
mountainous and rather picturesque, with fertile valleys 
here and there. . . . Between the views and our 
books the hours passed pleasantly. . . . Two or three 
sociable, well dressed people got in and out, but much of 
the time we were all alone. . . . We sat and read till 
dusk, then went to stretch our legs and see a little of this 
mountain town of 22,000 inhabitants, whose main street, 
well built, is not less than two kilometers in length. 
. We had a nice supper, such as one gets at a good 
place off the great lines of travel. The waiters were 
courteous and almost affectionate, one of whom had been 
to New York and was anxious to talk. . . . There 
being no fireplace, we sat over a scaldino, which was more 
satisfactory than such things usually are." 

The next letter gives a glimpse of the work Dr. Taylor 
was doing in the theological school. It is of date Novem- 
ber 28th, 1902, and to his son in America: 

" . . . I am anxious to visit you next year, but 
just when, I can't say, as I wish to complete my course 
in Systematic Theology and in other respects go at the 



334 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

moment when I can be best spared from the mission. 
. . . Last session I wrote about 170 pages like this, 
or closer, on the being and attributes of God, the Bible, 
the Trinity, Creation, Providence, human nature, the 
Fall, Sin, relation to Adam. This session I have begun 
with the person of Christ, and hope to treat the Atone- 
ment and the Last Things. I have now Hodge's three big 
volumes and the De Civitate Dei of St. Augustine. Most 
of my reading is theological. When up, and the weather 
permits, I try to take a walk every day. Yesterday I 
went out at noon after a morning of work, walked as far 
as usual and got in a 'bus to return, as is my wont. Feel- 
ing in my pocket, I found, to my dismay, that I did not 
have the requisite two soldi, so jumped out at once, but, 
as it had turned quite warm, I reached home tired out 
and bathed with perspiration. To-day, almost as I started, 
with only a cane, it began to rain, but not heavily, and 
having an errand I kept on, hugging the houses, nor 
turned back though the rain now came down fast and the 
streets were all puddles ; but, my commission executed, I 
shared the rear platform of the 'bus* with seven others, 
all of us dripping." 

On December 10th, 1902, he wrote to his daughter 
Susy: 

" . . . What a blessed thing it is that every morn- 
ing we may begin life afresh. It is hard to keep well, 
specially when one is old, if he lives indoors and, seated 
in a chair, works ever with his brain ; and yesterday was 
to me a day of deep discouragement, for I broke down 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 335 

in writing my lecture, and it seemed so poor I felt half 
ashamed to read it when the four students came, and it 
looked as if my brain meant to strike work once for all. 
But I mention this only to illustrate the blessedness of 
beginning a new life with each new day, for this morn- 
ing I looked from my bed out upon the fair world and 
the bright sky, and decided not to give up, or, God help- 
ing me, retreat, till my work be done and the long resting 
time be reached." 

In a letter to his sister, dated Rome, December 21st, 
1902, he wrote: 

" ... At one o'clock I drove Mary up to Ezekiel's 
grand old studio, a part of the Termse of Diocletian. He, 
a Richmond man like me, has a big heart, and every Satur- 
day gives a dinner to some children and adult friends, 
one of whom is Mary. I dined alone on a young pigeon, 
daintily cooked potatoes, cold bread pudding and stewed 
apples (not dried apples)." 

On January 8th, 1903, he wrote to his son George : 

" . . . Tuesday p. m. I met my class here; sub- 
ject, Christ's Intercessory Work. I have now completed 
over 200 pages like this, but more closely written, on 
Systematic Theology. On the work of Jesus Christ I am 
more and more leaving aside other books and going to 
that one which is the source of all theology worth the 
name. That night (Befana*) we had the young people 
of our congregation, students, etc. ; twenty-six in all. 



•Twelfth night. 



336 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

. . . All were so well behaved ; in fact, they could 
not have been more gentle had they been raised at court." 

On February 7th, 1903, after quite a sharp attack of 
illness, he wrote to Susy : 

" . . . Mary has doubtless written you of Mr. 
Robert Ryland, a Kentucky Baptist, a grandson of old 
Dr. Ryland, who won in New York, in a competitive 
examination, a purse of $3,000, for three years' study of 
art over here. We had him to dine last Monday night 
and found him ever so bright and jolly. The other guests 
were Dr. Whittinghill, his college mate and Winnie Pig- 
gott. Mary gave us a chic dinner, and then we played 
logomachy." 

On March 29th, 1903, he wrote from Rome to his older 
son: 

" . . . Last Monday came the letter from Dr. 
Willingham informing me that the Board had just 
authorized my coming home at my own pleasure. 
Several important, difficult questions of the mission are 
pending and I cannot leave the field till they are settled. 
Indeed, it would be of no use, for black care would still sit 
behind me, and rest from responsibility is needed quite 
as much as from work. In my lectures I have reached 
Eschatology, and if all goes well the course ought to be 
completed by May first. ... I would like to leave as 
early as possible in May, but think it more probable we 
shall sail in June. ... A frail man, turned seventy, 
must always feel on the edge of things and speak very 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 337 

humbly about his earthly plans. ... I have read 
not without emotion your well written tribute in the 
Religious Herald to Dr. Archibald Alexander Rice. How 
well and'pleasantly I remember his visits to 'Kirklea,' and 
ours to his, as you justly say, most hospitable home! He 
was at once so wise and able, and yet so unpretending, 
genial, and truly humble." 

The next letter, dated April 16th, 1903, is to his older 
son: 

" . . . I have spent some eight days in bed since 
my last to Susy. . . . Really it has been hard to 
keep my courage up. . . . Yesterday, in bed, I 
finished writing the last lecture of my course. 
As far as my knowledge goes there yet remains to be 
written a really satisfactory Systematic Theology. 
If my labor ever makes a oook, I trust it will be readable 
and read outside the small Italian theological student 
body. Yesterday, with Mary's kind help, I sent off twenty- 
two circular letters as to financial arrangements while I 
am gone. . . . Since I began this I have delivered 
my last lecture as above, with some farewell words, speak- 
ing continuously for about two and one-half hours. 
. A Latin congress is now in session in Rome, 
following close on the heels of an Agricultural. 
For a short time there was a general strike in Rome, no 
cabs or newspapers ; bread-making and meat butchering 
done by soldiers. It seemed queer, but it was soon over." 

Miss Chittenden, a dear friend of the family, who 



338 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

visited at 52 Giulio Romano, wrote the following acrostic 
on the name, George Boardman Taylor: 

SAINT GEORGE. 

Glorious the legend of that wondrous knight, 
England's great patron, who in armour dight 
O'erthrew the dragon, and with lance in hand 
Rescued fair innocence and saved the land. 
Gracious and fair he stands, an old world dream, 
Embalmed in verse, the happy poet's theme, 
By painters praised, cathedrals show his face; 
On wayside shrines his faded form we trace. 
And one I know who like in deeds and name 
Raised up the fettered truth from earth and shame, 
Dragons pursued through long and weary years, 
Marked by strong faith, triumphant over fears. 
Amid the wanderings of his long crusade 
Near San Michele once his footsteps strayed, 
Towards him he looked who heard the maiden's plaint 
And wist not he was brother to the saint. 
Yet he belongeth to the mystic band, 
Linked by a common purpose hand in hand, 
On the bright page where saints are written down 
Read twice St. George co-kin in cross and crown. 

— C. Chittenden. 




Last Picture, Berne, 1903 
(From a Kodak) 



CHAPTER X 

Last Visit to America — Last Years, and Death 



Grow old along with me! 

The best is yet to be — 

The last of life, for which the first was made. 

Our times are in His hands 

Who saith, "A whole I planned, 

Youth shows but half; trust God; see all, nor be afraid." 

— Browning. 

Accoeding to his plan, Dr. Taylor, with his daughter 
Mary, sailed early in June for America to make what was 
to be his last visit to his native land. After spending some 
days with his sister, near New York, and yet other days 
with his son Spotswood in Washington City, they went 
to Hollins, Virginia, to make his headquarters, while in 
America, in the home of his son George. During the 
summer Dr. Taylor spent some days at the Greenbrier 
White Sulphur, whose waters had in other years greatly 
helped him. A serious and protracted illness of his 
daughter, Susy, made his visit to America longer by 
several months than he had intended. In November he 
attended, in Staunton, the session of the General Asso- 
ciation, delivering on Sunday, upon the occasion of the 
semi-centennial of the church, which was also the dedi- 
cation of the new meeting-house, a historical address, which 
was afterwards published and from which extracts have 



340 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

been made in this volume. In the same month he went 
to New York City to consult a specialist, hoping for re- 
lief from his deafness. This hope was not realized. It 
was a bitter disappointment, but he bore it with heroic 
spirit. 

It was during this visit that the incident occurred which 
his younger son refers to in the following lines, concern- 
ing Dr. Taylor's fondness for horses, and his horseman- 
ship: 

"He loved horses and never saw a fine one go by without 
a comment. . . . He was a fearless horseman. I 
was very timid. I remember vividly my fright when in 
Virginia in 1885 he insisted on riding a very spirited 
colt. He had difficulty in mounting, because too feeble to 
spring or pull himself into the saddle, but once up he was 
at home and the steed knew it. Then he wore an expres- 
sion of confidence and his eye twinkled with amusement 
at my concern as he cantered off. Eighteen years later 
he was again in Virginia and again eager to ride; and I 
remember on one occasion that after real difficulty in 
getting him into the saddle, we sat for an hour very 
anxious for his safety, as the horse was young and not 
without mettle. He came back safely, dismounted easily, 
and later remarked in his simple, childlike way, free from 
any trace of boasting, that he did not think the horse quite 
spirited enough to be ridden just for pleasure." 

In the early part of April, 1904, Dr. Taylor sailed 
with his daughters for Italy. The splendid stream of 
letters to loved ones continues, though space forbids copious 
extracts. His daughter Susy was quite ill upon reaching 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 341 

Rome and continued so until the bracing air of Vallom- 
brosa, at which point the family found a satisfactory 
summer home, helped her towards recovery. During the 
spring and summer Dr. Taylor was far from well, suffer- 
ing first from serious trouble with his ear and later from 
general debility. 

In September, 1905, he was in Florence and saw the 
city disturbed by riots. In October, in a letter he 
referred to the fact that the Board in Richmond had made 
an appropriation for the publication of his work on 
Systematic Theology. The book was subsequently pub- 
lished and favorably received. 

In a letter, November 15th, 1904, to his son George, he 
described his being run over in the Corso, an accident 
which might have cost him his life. Once before he had 
had a similar accident, and remembering the crowded 
streets of Rome, and his increasing deafness, his success 
in going about the city proclaims loudly his courage 
and undaunted spirit. A part of this letter is given: 

" . . . I went out to cash a draft for my salary, 
doing that and other errands on foot. Then I went to 
the front of Aragno's cafe, where the 'bus stops, for it is 
too crowded usually to get on it elsewhere. It seemed 
unusually long in coming, and as I was very tired, having 
taken only a cup of coffee for breakfast, and Susy having 
begged me to come home very early, I stepped off of the 
sidewalk, hardly into the street, to look up the Corso. 
Oh, if I had not done it, for a cab came at full tilt and I 
went down as if shot ! I was helped into the cafe, and I 
knew at once that I was badly hurt in the small of my 



342 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

back, for I could not stand up. I, however, did not lose 
my head, and got a wineglass of wine, but I could not 
reply to inquiries. Then appeared the inevitable police- 
man. I asked to be taken home; my one desire was to 
lie down, and I would gladly have been placed on the 
pavement. As I was placed in a cab I fainted, or any- 
how lost consciousness, and when I came to I found that 
we were headed the wrong way. In fact, we drove to the 
Hospital of San Giacomo; the gates were unlocked and 
relocked after we entered. In the meantime I had been 
begging the guard, a stupid sort of fellow, to take me 
home, but in vain. The cab was at once surrounded by 
the hospital men and there was the table within the open 
door on the ground floor — the table on which I was to 
be stripped and examined, as happened to me once before, 
to decide the nature and extent of my hurt. I continued 
energetically to protest, admitting my state, but pleading 
my right to go home, and urging how much better it was 
for me. In twenty minutes or half an hour, which seemed 
much longer to me, the delay doing me much harm, I 
was released and drove home alone; but for the reviving 
fresh air, I don't know how I could have stood it. Lifted 
into a chair I was borne by two men to my bed. Dr. 
Brock, a Scotch physician, was called by your sisters 
through the telephone. He prescribed opium pills and 
whiskey; said the case was not serious, no bones being 
broken, but declined to give any idea as to when I would 
be relieved and able to get about. Those days seem to 
me like a dark dream, as it was hard to move in bed, and 
any movement of my left leg caused severe pain, reach- 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 343 

ing up into my reins. I was deeply depressed and 
wickedly longed to die. I read a good deal, your sisters 
most lovingly going here and there for books. 
Besides the direct pains there were all the neuralgic, 
rheumatic and sciatic emphasized, the pains in the feet 
being as bad as any, but soothed with rubbing and bottles 
of hot water. Two or three days ago I was partially 
dressed and lifted to an easy chair by the bed, which was 
a pleasant change, but was soon followed by discomfort 
and pain. But I try it now daily, and, as the doctor said 
all the possible movement would be useful, I have just 
made two or three steps with great effort and pain, lean- 
ing heavily on Agnese and one of my very kind daughters. 
It exhausts at once, as neither back nor legs can support 
me." 

Early in December, 1904, he was at work with his class, 
and his pen seems never to have been idle long. In the 
spring came his appointment as a delegate to the Baptist 
World Congress in London; the arrival of the Rev. Dr. 
Everett Gill, with his family, as a missionary; and the 
announcement of the engagement of his younger daughter, 
Susy, to the Rev. Dr. D. G. Whittinghill. Upon the 
announcement of his appointment to London he feared 
he would not be equal to such a trip. When the time 
came, however, with his usual pluck and energy he set 
out, accompanied by Dr. Whittinghill, and made the 
journey from Berne to London in a single day. In Lon- 
don, where he met his son and grandson, he was especially 
anxious that those with him should enjoy the convention, 
and the sights of the great city. He and his grandson 



344 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

visited together more than once the Britism Museum, and 
ever and again he was seeking to promote the pleasure of 
those who were with him. On Sunday he preached, by 
appointment, at Salter's Hall Baptist Church, his text 
being Ps. ex: 4. After these London days the quartet 
left for Berne, where on July 27th Susy Braxton, his 
youngest child, was married, in the beautiful Protestant 
Cathedral, to Eev. Dr. D. G. Whittinghill. Before the 
wedding and at it, by his generosity, common sense, un- 
selfishness, genial humor and cheerfulness, Dr. Taylor 
helped to make the occasion beautiful and pleasant. 

A letter written on October 21st, 1905, to his son George, 
refers to the visit of various American brethren to Home, 
and to their desire for enlargement of the work: 

" . Since the visit of a number of brethren to 

Rome last summer, there seems to be a disposition to buy 
ground and erect nobler buildings in Rome for our 

mission, and Dr. W and I have been looking for a 

good lot, but the cost is immense, one being held at $120,- 
000, and at least as much more would be needed for a 
building worthy of the site. I am, of course, pleased, but 
am not hopeful that even the best house on the finest lot 
would do all that brethren imagine — brethren who have 
been mightily stirred by seeing the new M. E. edifice." 

During this winter his work of lecturing to his theo- 
logical students went on, though a serious trouble with his 
eyes made it necessary for him quite often to use an 
amanuensis, and caused him much pain. Still his letters 
were long, and full of details from his own life, and of 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 345 

interest in the smallest matters which concerned those to 
whom he wrote. He was always in touch with the great 
problems and events in the religious and political world. 
On March 13th, 1906, he wrote to his son: 

" You see I have been interested in the 

higher criticism, and we have gotten for the school library 
Hastings's Bible Cyclopedia, and several other books for 
and against the said criticism. ... So far, I am the 
reverse of convinced by the reasonings, which seem in- 
genious and far fetched, but no more. There is even a 
sort of fascination in them; at least I can feel how they 
would be to some, but they rather irritate and annoy me." 

The following extracts from a letter, begun in Milan 
and finished in Rome, describe the gathering of the evan- 
gelists in the former city in April, 1906 : 

"If you are surprised at receiving a letter of mine hail- 
ing from this place, and at this time, I am even more sur- 
prised at finding myself here. True, our Baptist Con- 
gress has been advertized for weeks to open here to-night. 
I am one of the three appointed speakers, and in accept- 
ing the task I fully expected and meant to come, and duly 
prepared my address; but, on the other hand, serious in- 
disposition, together with the return of winter, weather 
more like January than April, led me to give up the 
idea as imprudent, if not absolutely impossible, up to yes- 
terday morning, and I had arranged to send my MS. by 
Dr. Whittinghill to be read by him or some one else. 
. . . After my last to you the pain ... in- 
creased so much that it became almost unbearable, and the 



346 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

doctor had to be called in. He made my heart go down 
into my shoes by naming uric acid in the blood as the 
cause or a cause. ... It bothered me more, as 
symptoms, and, in part, treatment, were like that of my 
father in the last six months of his life, when he was much 
with me and suffered badly. ... In any case after 
a stunned sort of feeling, bodily and mental, God has 
enabled me to kiss the rod and say 'Thy will be done/ 
whether it be a deal more of pain or a cutting short of 
this earthly pilgrimage to enter, I trust, upon a life with- 
out pain or sin, but full of perfect peace. I hesitate to 
write this, so deceitful is the heart — my heart — but I have 
been greatly helped in reading Jeremy Taylor's 'Holy 
Dying/ a book to make one feel the goodness of God even 
in his worst moments, and the absurdity of ever murmur- 
ing against His ever wise and blessed will, and I do think 
after a long and comfortable life I would be an ingrate 
to complain. . . . The meeting was interesting and 
helpful with much of brotherly love, and of the spirit 
of prayer." 

A letter written in bed under date, Rome, May 18th, 
1906, tells of his serious indisposition, of the birth 
of a little granddaughter, Susy's child, and refers to a 
copy of a Chattanooga, Tenn., paper, containing an ac- 
count of the Southern Baptist Convention: 

" ... In reading the first number of the Chatta- 
nooga paper, all about the Baptists, some passages seemed 
strangely familiar, and not without a certain thrill I then 
recognized my own sermon and published tract of nearly 
forty years ago on 'What the Baptists Have Done/ etc. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 347 

But though good to-day, it should have been slightly re- 
vised. This is some encouragement to the frail old man 
who feels himself such a back number." 

In a letter dated June 16th, 1906, covering three large 
pages, and full of interesting family and mission inci- 
dents, Dr. Taylor says : 

" This morning at our church Signor Galassi 

read the 90th Psalm, and invited me to speak, which I 
did for fourteen minutes, as it is a psalm by me much 
studied and meditated, and greatly loved. Though I 
cabbed it each way, it was hard work, with much resting, 
to climb to our landing." 

The following is an extract from one of the many letters 
Dr. Taylor wrote to his grandson: 

" . . . It is a pity you could not taste some soup 
from your turtle. Once, when a boy, I caught a big cat- 
fish, and my grandma had a soup made of it, which I 
found delicious, though the rest of the family had a 
prejudice, very natural, against cat-fish, but really it 
makes excellent soup. In Rome, and specially in the 
Ghetto and in the Trastevere, there are restaurants which 
offer a famous fish soup, but whether cat-fish enters into 
it I do not know. The Neapolitans make much use of all 
sorts of small shell-fish, which they call, very poetically, 
the 'fruit of the sea.' You write a very good letter. 

"It is nice that you have so much money from your 
generous Uncle Ivanhoe and others, and you naturally 
think of the best way to spend it, and so learn the uses 
of money against the time when you will earn it with 
your own work of hands and head. . . . Yes, it is 



348 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

nice for a boy to have money to spend, and it may be of 
great use to him in his practically learning what money 
can and cannot do, but I beg you to lay to heart what I 
now say: that is, that money in a boy's hands to use as he 
pleases is a great danger, specially when his thought is 
what he can buy for his own pleasure or advantage, for 
it tends to foster that egotism and selfishness which, 
alas, are so natural to us all. The danger is greater in 
your case because you are an only child. When I was a 
boy, if money ever came to me, it was never so much as 
ten dollars, because people would give something to each 
of us six children ; or, if any came just to me, I at once 
thought of giving some of it to Sister Jane, or Brother 
James, or Charlie or Fannie or Mary or buying something 
for each of them. No doubt you are as generous as I was — 
young people usually are generous — but love of money and 
selfishness do grow on people as they grow older, and I 
for one do not wish ever to be a selfish or avaricious old 
man; and every month, as soon as I get my salary, I 
begin to give away all I can spare, and I do without 
many things that I would like, in order to give to needy 
and worthy persons and objects. My rule long has been, 
of every dollar I get, to give away one tenth, but I oftener 
give one fifth, and though it means bread to some who 
would otherwise starve, it does me even more good, filling 
my heart with pure joy. Thackeray was always giving, 
now a tip to a school boy, then gloves to some girl, or 
thousands of dollars to save a poor man from ruin. It is 
godlike to give. God is the great giver. He has a 
precious gift for you which I trust you will accept with 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 349 

a thankful heart. May His blessing be with you. I love 
you very much, and wish all best things for you, my dear 
Cabell." 

In a letter, dated June 25th, 1906, he writes : 

"... I have since my last read Professor Orr's 
book, 'Progress of Dogma.' . . . The Rev. Dr. 
George L. Shearer, an old University student friend of 
mine, fifty years ago, and now Secretary of the American 
Tract Society, wrote me introducing his daughter, an art 
teacher in the city of New York. Mary hunted her up, 
and she is to dine with us to-night. Next Thursday I 
have a final examination on the last two chapters of my 
Manual of Systematic Theology. . . . After the 
examination we shall flee like a bird to the mountain, as 
soon as may be, God willing.' ' 

The summer of 1906 the family spent at Vallombrosa, 
but not in the same quarters as the year before. Prom 
this summer home, Dr. Taylor wrote, July 15th, to his 
older son: 

" . Two peasants from the Casino awaited 

us with a sled drawn by milk-white oxen for our rather 
extensive luggage, as, besides clothing and a big carriage 
I had just bought for Diana, we had a big basket with 
our bed and table linen; and a big donkey with rope 
halter for bridle, which bore me hither, not without some 
trepidation on my part, but one of the peasants looked 
after the donkey and me. . . . Honey we get from 
the great Forestry establishment at Vallombrosa. 
I give the mornings to study and pen work, preparatory 
to next session. The views are fine and vary from day to 



350 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

V 

day and from one hour to another, according to the light. 
This estate belongs to an old and historic family 
of Florence, the portraits of whose ancestors I have seen 
in the Uffizi Gallery there. . . . You will rejoice in 
Italy's new and increasing prosperity, due to the enter- 
prise of the people, and to the superior ability of her 
statesmen. She is now recognized as the most prosperous 
country on the continent, and as having the brightest 
future." 

The next extracts tell of another trial, involving severe 
pain, which Dr. Taylor was called to undergo. The first 
is from a letter to his son, dated August 7th, and the 
second from one to his grandson, dated August 8th. Allu- 
sion is made to Miss Mattie L. Cocke, president of Hollins 
Institute, Virginia: 

" . . . On the afternoon of Susy's and Dr. 

W 's festa ... I had occasion to come to the 

house, and, needing a momentary support, I leaned against 
a door which I believed fastened, but which, anyhow, gave 
way and I fell heavily on my back and left hip on the 
brick pavement. Angiolina heard my cry and came and 
insisted on helping me up and to bed. ... I waited 
two days and then sent for the doctor. . . . On his 
second visit he mentioned a specialist. . . . Hope 
the two 'meds' will come this evening. . . . Dr. 

W helps me . . . but the burden of me falls 

almost entirely on Mary, who does everything for me. 

Next to the pain and confinement, I mind most 

the interruption, but as to all I wish to say 'Thy will be 

done.' . . . Do not worry about me; no doubt care- 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 351 

lessness has been a fault of mine. . . . Think that 
when this reaches you I may be ever so much better. I 
have often thought of a remark of Dr. Plummer's in an 
article or essay on 'Dying,' that when the pain is long 
it is not severe, or when severe not long. I quote it, not 
because thinking of death, but only as a generally com- 
forting thought about pain, even if only partly true. 
I had one splendid ride on the donkey, really 
a fine saddle animal, with quick, easy walk and a sort 
of lope or canter. . . . Mary has shown me to-day a 
handsome gold pin sent by Miss Mattie for Diana, and 
the name engraved. Naturally, dear George, the 27th 
of July recalled you and Cabell and our dear days in 
London and near Berne, and last night I thought of our 
reaching Paris, and of the nice hotel, etc. Many are the 
treasures of memory which come to us 'oft in the stilly 
night.' " 

"Well, the two doctors came. . . . The specialist 
on hip diseases measured my legs. ... I had to get 
out of bed and stand, and try to walk. He said frankly 
that I would have a tedious spell of it. I was measured 
for crutches, which he will order from Florence, and I 
am to walk with them daily, no matter how it hurts, and 
I am to be carried down by the peasants, and spend my 
days in the open air, as my general health was suffering 
from the confinement. . . . Now, strange as it may 
seem, I am more cheerful since knowing my fate, and 
the pains I will try from now on just to accept as my 
companion and friend. . . . It's all right. Praise 



352 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the Lord. Alas that there are so many other sufferers ! 
There will be no pain in heaven." 

The next letter tells about his crutches, which cost $5, 
and the great affliction of Dr. Everette Gill and family. 
It is dated August 26th, 1906 : 

" . . . The Gill family have had a hard time this 
summer and are not yet entirely relieved. Without con- 
sulting any of us they rented Mrs. Leftwich Dodge's 
house at Nettuno, some forty miles from Rome, on the 
sea coast, and Mrs. Gill and the children all had repeated 
attacks of fever, despite large consumption of quinine. 
Mrs. Gill was dangerously ill and suffered terribly. 
. . . Just as their skies seemed brighter, the little 
three-year-old Geraldine sickened and died in twenty-four 

hours. Dr. W , telegraphed for, went to them at once 

and remained to the funeral. So did Mrs. G 's sister 

from Paris. . . . The G s have shown a truly 

Christian spirit under their great sorrows." 

From a long letter written from the same place, 
Vallombrosa, September 8th, 1906, the following lines 
are taken : 

"... In most respects we have had an almost 
ideal summer, something to be thankful for, whatever 
the future may have in store for us. The baby, of course, 
is some trouble (not to me), but I think far more pleasure 
to the three who care for her, and certainly a great deal of 
pleasure also to me. She is fat and flourishing. 
She is four months old to-day. Dr. Whittinghill is a 
most devoted husband and father. . . . He has 
proved a very kind and helpful son to me. . . . No, 



EEV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOE, D. D. 353 

the hip was not dislocated, but the doctors said that a 
small bone was broken or displaced. ... It has been 
very interesting to notice the sheep and cattle here 
and the various operations of husbandry. . . . Now 
the fall plowing, with a very large plow, is going on. 
No horse; the oxen do it all. The sled, which is adopted 
for all sorts of carrying, the fences, everything, is made 
without nails, the joining being done with wooden pins 
and by withes or twigs, which, while green, are twisted 
into suppleness, and the fences are made hog proof with 
bushes and brambles woven into a sort of wattling." 

The next letter written September 22nd, 1906, on a 
big half sheet, part to Cabell and part to Cabell's father, 
was from Perugia, where the family stopped for a season, 
on their way back to Rome: 

" . . . We reached this at 10 p. m., I utterly worn 
out and hardly able to stand, much less walk, though I 
had to do both, and, despite heavy wraps, I for the last 
few hours of the trip had shaken with the piercing even- 
ing chills, as all along there had been heavy rains. Other- 
wise, the journey was all we could ask, as the day was 
bright, and I travelled like a prince, though in third class ; 

as Dr. W attended to all transfers and he and Mary 

carried the hand baggage, and helped me about. Last 
night was the first for ten days that I was warm, as, after 
the bad weather, my feet, most of the time, were like blocks 
of ice. I have gradually improved in walking and seldom 
suffer pain at the hip, but from sheer weakness and lack 
of movement I can walk only a few steps at a time, and 
only with help or touching the walls with my hands for 



354 LIFE AND LETTEBS OF 

support. But I have abandoned the crutches, which I 
never learned to use easily. . . . Perugia is 1,700 
feet above the sea. 

"I have just taken a walk . . . over this hilly, 
picturesque town of about 30,000 inhabitants, everywhere 
admiring the noble architecture, not confined to the great 
public buildings, for the doorway of almost every house 
is an artistic arch of some kind. I remember Ruskin's 
reproving the people of Edinburgh for having all their 
openings for doors and windows square. . . . One 
may travel over America, aye, and England, and get little 
idea of architectural grace and loveliness. He must come 
to Italy for that, and even in her secondary cities, as here, 
he will find it at every step. . . . The day before we 
left Vallombrosa there came the agent, in the pouring 
rain, to take the consegna, i. e., to go over the list of 
things in the house and see what was broken or missing. 
We had to pay for several breakages, but he was not hard 
on us and very polite, and we gave him a cafe noir. 
Thursday morning the sled, drawn by two immense cows, 
bore the numerous pieces of baggage to the depot, and 
then came back for me; it was filled with hay, and on 
that a pillow, on which I came safely over the steep, rough 
path to the depot. It was very cold and the wind pierced, 
but I heartened myself that it would be warmer at every 
step, and, in fact, in an hour we came down some 2,000 
feet." 

On September 30th, 1906, from Perugia, Dr. Taylor 
wrote : 

" . . . This house, an ex-convent, is old-fashioned, 



EEV. GEOEGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOE, D. D. 355 

with different levels, inner stairs up and down and a 
well in one of the rooms. ... I am not well, and 
at times suffer a depression of spirits not usual with me 
hitherto. In fact, I am reminded of the words in Ecc. 
xn, 'The grasshopper shall be a burden and desire shall 
fail, because,' etc. These may be but passing feelings; 
but my strength has failed, and as the outward man 
perishes, I can only pray, as you must, that the inward 
man may be renewed day by day, in my case. 
Mary and I leave to-morrow morning early, and hope to 
reach Rome in the early afternoon, and find Agnese, and 
the house swept and garnished to receive us." 

On October 11th, 1906, Dr. Taylor wrote to his son 
at Hollins : 

" . . . Yours of the 24th ultimo has arrived. I 
am also indebted to you for its predecessor of one week 
before, in which you tell of seeing your Aunt Fannie 
Ficklin off after her visit so pleasant to you, and leaving 
so agreeable an impression on the community, of the re- 
opening of school, of Mrs. At wood, . . . and the 
address of William Jennings Bryan. ... I felt much 
better after getting to Rome, but have since had some 
return of my trouble. ... At times my vitality and 
my vital spirits seem very low, and then both rise some- 
what. ... I can walk now, about as well as ever, 
and try to go a few hundred yards daily ; lack of strength 
is the trouble. Yesterday I staggered and nearly fell on 
the street from sheer weakness. I kept up by force of 
will and managed, in the four or ^nq blocks to the 'bus, to 
sit down twice on chairs in front of cafes. I would have 



356 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

taken a cab, but none were in sight. I have done some 
reading in Dr. Hodge and have read the 'Life of Lever' 
and nearly finished reading the 'Life of Charles J. 
Matthews.' Next will come the 'Life of Charles James 
Fox.' " 

Nicholas Papengouth, referred to in the next letter, was 
the son of Count Papengouth, and had been for some 
years an evangelist of the Southern Baptist Convention. 
This letter is dated Pome, October 21st, 1906 : 

" . . . This morning I received the sad news of 
the death of dear Nicholas Papengouth. ... To me 
it came as a shock, and I have almost exhausted my 
capacity for emotion since the news came, for I loved him 
dearly, and, despite some slight and annoying, and ap- 
parently absurd, eccentricities, he was one of ten thousand, 
good as gold and true as steel. Thus in less than one 
year three of our ministers have been called to their 
reward, every one, to human eye, prematurely. Nicholas 
looked up to me as a father, and he was to me a son. I 
have known him from a boy. He died at Ana Capri of 
fever." 

Dr. Taylor held, up to within a short time before his 
death, the place on the Revision Committee, to which he 
refers in a letter dated November 2nd, 1906, and then 
resigned, when his son-in-law, Dr. Whittinghill, was ap- 
pointed to succeed him: 

" . . The British and Foreign Bible Society 

wish to revise Diodati's version of the New Testament 
and have nominated a committee of seven for the work, 
all Italians, save Dr. Piggott and myself. I am pleased 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 357 

with my appointment, though conscious of lacking compe- 
tence for the task, and dreading the meetings of the com- 
mittee on account of my deafness. I shall probably soon 
go to Florence for the preliminary meeting. We are to 
begin with one gospel and one epistle. Two of the pro- 
fessors of the Waldensian school in Florence are on the 
committee, and on account of their position, and having 
prepared commentaries on the New Testament, are likely 
to lead in the work. Mr. A. Meille (who succeeded Mr. 
Bruce, and now goes out of office), having reached the age 
of seventy, will be the secretary of the committee. The 
other two members you do not know, nor I, but I have 
read their articles, and believe them learned men, Bian- 
ciardi and Taglialatela, the latter of the M. E. Mission/' 

From an eight-page, closely written letter to his son 
at Hollins, dated November 21st, 1906, the following 
extracts are taken: 

" . . Mine was the direttissimo, and I had 

plenty of room in a well warmed compartment of a corri- 
dor car. Swiftly we fled northward and swiftly fled the 
moments, so that ere I had time to be tired we were in 
Florence. ... In the committee Mr. Piggott sat 
next to me and with a pencil kept me somewhat in touch 
with what went on. Both of my letters were read by 
the secretary, in which I expressed my reserves in accept- 
ing a place on the committee, and also my conviction that 
the changes should be only such as were required by 
fidelity to the original, and by changes in the meaning of 
words used by Diodati, or by any of these becoming 
obsolete. This principle was adopted. Professor Luzzi 



358 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

was appointed to make the revision, sending a copy to 
each of us with wide margins for our suggestions. 
Mr. Piggott as senior, he being seventy-five and one-half, 
was made president and I, against my protest, vice-presi- 
dent. It is an empty honor. We were in session over 
two hours, and not only did the occasion pass off easily 
for me, who had rather dreaded it on account of my deaf- 
ness, but I was able to hold my own and contribute my 
share to it. . . . I have been much interested in 
examining the Gospels and Acts translated by the Jerome 
R. C. Society, and I would write you more about it, but 
that I think of an article for the press on that subject, 
which would be all the more appropriate, if, as is rumored 
persistently in Rome for ten days, but not published in 
any journal, that the Pope has really put his veto on the 
Society, and this after having given it his blessing, and 
after tens of thousands of copies of the extremely attractive 
booklet have been sold ; and although in the preface, while 
referring kindly to the work of Protestant 'brethren,' in 
the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, there is a formal 
statement and defence of cardinal Roman Catholic 
doctrines. I am now well under way with my class in 
Systematic Theology, and find my deafness not as much 
hindrance as I expected. Having studied the lesson care- 
fully, I prepare blocks of questions on slips of paper and 
each student draws a slip and goes to work to answer it as 
in a written examination. . . . The hour is crowded 
full. An oral quiz would have many advantages, but this 
plan tends to secure exactness. The students come to my 
house, which I very rarely leave. . . . Yesterday 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 359 

morning came your letter of the 12th instant, telling of 
the funeral of dear little Bettie, the child of Spotswood 
and Louise. It was all the greater shock to us, as your 
letter, telling of her illness, had not,- and as yet has not, 
come to hand. I weep with the bereaved parents, know- 
ing by sad experience, several times renewed, how keen is 
the pain, how heavy the blow when a darling, beautiful 
babe, a part of one's own self, is snatched away. 
My own family is equally divided, the mother in heaven, 
with Bessie and Sally and Grace and Carter, and I still 
here, old and frail, sustained and comforted by the love 
of my four sons and daughters, who still remain. I am 
as thankful to-day for those who have gone as for those 
who are with me. . . . Dear little Grace was born 
and died when I was in Stonewall Jackson's army and 
I never saw her, but she was, and is, loved not less tenderly 
than the others. I remember praying all night that she 
might be spared, and she had then already winged her 
way to the heavenly world. Ah, I can imagine Spots- 
wood's grief! . . . Since I began this, your belated 
letter of the 9th and 10th has come, telling of the dear 
Bettie's illness." 

The next letter, dated December 13th, 1906, was dic- 
tated. From this time until his death, almost all his 
letters were dictated, Mary or Dr. Whittinghill acting as 
amanuensis : 

" . . . This is my twelfth day in bed, and though 
it irks me to miss my class, and though I have not been 
able to read or write as sometimes, yet I am suffering 
no real pain and very little discomfort. Some of my bad 



360 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

symptoms seem nearly gone and I hope in a day or two to 
get up, despite some fear of a relapse. ... I would 
like to be in your congregation next Sunday, and to have 
a hug and kiss from darling Barbara, whose bright 
affectionateness abides in my memory." 

On January 2nd, 1907, Dr. Taylor dictated a letter to 
his son at Hollins : 

" . . You must know that the thirty-one days 

of December I was continually confined to my bed. True, 
I made three efforts to get about, wishing to be up Xmas 
day, and cast no shadow on the joy of the rest, with 
which I was in perfect sympathy, but I had each time 
to go quickly back to bed or lie on a sofa while our dear 
ones and the Wilsons feasted, and on my birthday I had 
to be borne neck and heels back to bed. ... I have 
been very peaceful and happy, almost all the time, so much 
so in fact that I have wondered sometimes whether it is 
due to self-deception, but really I think not. ... I 
long to be able to work if it is God's will." 

On January 16th, 1907, he dictated a letter to his son 
at Hollins. He alludes to Prof. Frank W. Duke, for some 
years professor of mathematics in Hollins Institute and 
now superintendent of the Mechanics Institute, Rich- 
mond, Va. : 

" . . . I repeat my question, who has taken Mr. 
Duke's place, and is teaching Cabell algebra ? . 
It is pleasant having our cousins in Rome. Fanny and 
Virginia Goodenow dined with us on the 8th. I like 
them very much. . . . Later in the afternoon, Mary, 
who has helped me with the revision, put up and mailed 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 361 

my work to Florence, together with an explanatory note, 
which she wrote for me. ... I could not have 
finished this first instalment without Dr. Whittinghill. 
We have been very much excited over a pleasing fact 
which will interest you also. Paul Paschetto, who is 
a student in the Art School, has just taken a premium of 
1,000 francs for the best design for the new five-franc 
bank notes. He says it was at my suggestion that he went 
into the competition. There were thirty-four other con- 
testants. Now Vico Paschetto has competed for a prize, 
offered by Leo XIII, on 'Ostia.' His work makes a large 
book, even the index taking up scores of pages. The 
subject proved so big that other competitors flagged in the 
race, and he got his MS. in, only at 10 o'clock at night 
of the last possible day. . . . Acute pain I do not 
suffer more than once in four or five days, but much dis- 
comfort the rest of the time. My head hot and con- 
fused with an overpowering weakness. ... I have 
some moments of deep depression, but in the main praise 
God for His wonderful goodness to me." 

On January 21st, 1907, in a letter to his grandson, 
Cabell, Dr. Taylor, dictating to Mary, said: 

" . . . I am going to send you a booklet which, 
though so tiny, is famous, and after two centuries is still 
admired and considered the chief authority on fishing and 
other field sports. . . . There is a second part of it, 
which, however, is by another hand and not the work of 
the famous Sir Isaak Walton. . . . My dear George 
Cabell, your old grandfather is still very poorly, and leads 
an amphibious kind of life between the easy chair and the 



362 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

bed. I hope you will pray for him, as he does for you, 
every day. It must be a great pleasure for you to have 
little Barbara with you, and every boy ought to have a 
girl in the home. I hear she is very sweet; please kiss 
her for me and give my dear love to your father and 
Aunt Louise." 

The next letter, dated January 31st, begun with his 
own hand, was finished by Mary's : 

" . . . Dr. Aylett Cabell's death was a pain and 
a shock. . . . Mary kindly offers to finish this. 
As little work as the above, if it can be called 
work, knocks me up for the day. Mary's view is right, 
I do not seem in any danger; my delicate but tough in- 
herited organization would need an even heavier strain. 
There is just this reserve to make, that after two turns 
I have felt it were easier to slip away than to stay, the 
heart seeming to strike work. I have no wish to speak of 
my pains and weaknesses, for God knows them and He 
alone does. Let me rather praise Him for hours of com- 
parative comfort, and for mercies mixed with my worst 
experiences. I cannot too often be thankful for my 
home comforts, Mary's filial piety, for the affectionate 
fidelity of Agnese. ... I always thought that with 
the spring and ability to get out into the open air I 
might regain my strength, but I begin to doubt it, so 
languorous and enervating is the Roman spring ; so I must 
adjourn such hope to the summer and the mountains. 
I have lost most of the clinging to life, unless it were 
with health and strength to accomplish some good work; 
but I wish the will of God to be done, even if it means to 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 363 

suffer pain and weakness, though to depart were far better. 
Do not worry about me, as I am in the hands of an in- 
finitely skilful and loving physician. . . . About ten 
days ago we had three snow storms in close succession, and 
the snow of the second remained for hours, adorning 
especially the trees and fountains, so that all Rome was 
thrilled with the mystic beauty of the Fata Bianca. 
Everywhere in Italy the snow lying to an incredible 
height put a stop to trains, so wonderful is the soft might 
of snow power." 

On March 4th, 1907, he began a letter with his own 
hand, writing two pages, but several days later he finished 
it by dictating to his daughter: 

" This may give you some idea of how 

shaky and weak I have been. ... In general I have 
been able to say 'Thy will be done,' but under the stress 
of pain, and unable to work, the battle has had to be 
fought over and over again. With submission there is 
even peace. . . . To-day my Inter-Exam, is going 
on at the school. Yesterday I was mighty poorly and 
depressed, and it was a labor to prepare the examination. 
Dexter and Vico Paschetto will preside, as I cannot go. 
Our trio has had several pleasures, a modest 
outing or so in the fine days, the American ambassador's 
reception on Washington's birthday, a play in celebration 
of the 200th anniversary of Goldoni. ... I have 
continued to be miserable in body, but Mary's kindness 
continues unfailing. All day yesterday she reminded me 
vividly of your mother." 



364 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 



On April 28th, 1907, through an amanuensis, he wrote : 
" . . . This has been an uncomfortable day. 
. And last night there was little sleep for me, but 
I have had two or three delicious naps. . . . The day 
has been marked with mercies in the form of letters from 
Spotswood, Louise and you. . . . and a handsome 
check to Mary from the Atlantic Monthly. . . . Day 
before yesterday I took a half hour's drive with Mary, 
Diana and her little maid. The Corso was crowded, and 
the people stared at us as if they would bore into our in- 
most thoughts. Well does Emerson say that eyes are like 
lions, and rush in everywhere. The being carried down 
and up our spiral stair of sixty-five steps is very un- 
comfortable, but the men are so good and well behaved. 
They laid me on my bed exhausted and faint, and I 
scarcely changed my position for hours. I doubt if the 
outing did me good. In one respect I think I have learned, 
even quite lately, how to diminish, or do away with, one 
of my great occasional torments. I wish never to be too 
old to learn anything good or useful. We shall be learn- 
ing through all eternity, though our lessons will be on a 
higher grade and without pain or sorrow. ... I 
suppose if we returned from the eternal world we would 
preach as we have never yet done. I often feel that if 
I were once more a pastor, with normal health and voice, 
that I would make better sermons and preach them with 
more power than I actually did, but this is probably a 
fond delusion, although the Bible does often seem to me 
more illuminated than of yore. In point of fact, I am doing 
very little now. The students have come regularly twice 



REV. GEOEGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 365 

a week, and written out for an hour the lesson in theology, 
but I have several times had to receive them in bed. 
They are three dear fellows, almost reverential in their 
respect for me, and really affectionate. ... I have 
just sent off to Florence a small batch of revision, and am 
at work on another — at work in the sense that a sick and 
bed-ridden man can be." 

On May 29th, 1907, he dictated a letter, alluding to 
the International Sunday School Convention, and to Rev. 
Robert Walker, then a missionary of the English Baptist 
Mission in Italy; now working in New York City: 

" . . Mr. Walker stayed with us during 

the Sunday School Congress. . . . The Congress 
opened with a reception and banquet at the Quirinal 
Hotel, which your sisters and Dexter enjoyed. About 
200 ladies and gentlemen sat down together, mostly 
Americans. . . . The English-speaking meetings in 
the American Methodist Church were interesting and 
helpful. Mary was most impressed with the two sermons 
and talk of Campbell Morgan." 

In a letter dated Rome, June 16th, 1907, and dic- 
tated, allusion is made to the departure for the summer 
home and to the volume on Pastoral Theology, which he 
was working on, but which he never finished: 

"... *We hope to leave Wednesday night; I in 
the Pullman, Mary and Dexter third class, reaching 
Pracchia at 8 in the morning. ... I do not seem 
ever to have been weaker than in these June days, per- 
haps on account of the warmer weather, and the journey 
seems almost impossible ; but I have often been quite poorly 



366 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and seemed to gain in travelling. I am also a little 
afraid of the sharp change, and of the high altitude, but 
hitherto my constitution has shown great adaptability. 
If I have been in some respects less well off, it has only 
given fresh occasion for Mary's great kindness, and I have 
had many mercies. ... If I could only, with her 
and Dexter's help, complete my monograph on the 
ministry, and publish it in English and Italian, I should 
be glad." 

The next letter, dictated to Mary and addressed to his 
daughter-in-law, Louise, is dated June 23rd, 1907, Le 
Regine, Boscolungo, this being a high point in the Apen- 
nines, and tells of the journey from Rome to the family's 
home that summer: 

"... Wednesday night, the 19th instant, about 
ten o'clock, I was dressed, and then carried down by 
Dexter and the porter to the carriage, and, with my head 
on Mary's breast, driven to the station, Dexter making 
a third. Several of the students and young men of the 
church were awaiting us, by several of whom I was borne 
to my cabinet in the Pullman sleeper, and laid upon the 
couch. We had only hand baggage, trunks and chairs 
having been previously shipped. The little rooms on the 
sleeper are like the cabins of a steamship, and a great im- 
provement on the American ones. I was the sole occupant 
of mine, and kept the windows open all night. The bed 
was soft, and but for my bodily troubles the journey would 
have been made in perfect comfort. As it was, I had 
journeying mercies, and was vastly entertained, gazing 
out of the window into scenery illuminated by the moon, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 367 

and very soon by the early morning light, which clothed 
all in beauty. At Florence, about six in the morning, we 
were met by the dear Walkers, who brought scones and 
marmalade, and Mary got me a huge bowl of cafe e latte 
from the cafe. Another hour passed pleasantly and 
another less so, made so by the smoke of twenty-two 
tunnels, which was, however, less than later in the day. 
What I hated most was Mary and Dexter coming third 
class. With the help of rapacious porters, I was carried 
to the inn across the road, where we were soon comfort- 
ably quartered, and at one o'clock Susy and her two little 
girls joined us. I passed twenty-four hours mostly in 
discomfort and pain, and my effort to sit up was un- 
successful. The next morning, i. e., Friday, our servant 
arrived, and by ten o'clock we were all off in a light, four- 
seated carriage drawn by two horses, the cook riding on 
a trunk in the barroccino* of luggage. The drive to this 
place seemed to me almost impossible, but lying head and 
shoulders in Mary's lap, and legs stretched over to the 
front seat, supported by Dexter, it was achieved by me 
with a relative comfort, but greatly, I'm sure, to their 
discomfort ; but they were both perfectly sweet, and Susy 
so patient with Diana, a little feverish and restless. The 
road over the mountains crossed and ascended, and seemed 
interminable, but I had at the last a delightful surprise, 
for when we halted and the driver began to blanket his 
horses, and I thinking we were still far from our goal 
asked, 'Why are we stopping ?' Mary said : 'Because here 



*A kind of cart. 



368 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

we are to live.' In fact we were in front of a low stone 
house, plumb with the road, and I was carried up and 
put on the bed, where I have been ever since. 
The air is fresh and the landscape fine, but the fir forest 
less accessible for me than I had hoped. All settled them- 
selves promptly. Provisions had been brought and others 
awaited us here, so the family life was promptly and 
pleasantly started. This is the beauty of furnished 
lodgings in the mountains of Italy: you reach a strange 
and unknown house, and by the time you have bathed 
face and hands in spring water, a fire is burning, kettle 
boiling and a comforting cup of tea is served you, as if 
you had just returned home from an hour's drive ; then 
you get between cool linen sheets, coarse but clean, and are 
soon in dreamland, the country of nod, life resumed with 
scarcely a break ; or, if you are a careful Martha, you go 
to work and spend the hours in unpacking and arranging 
according to taste the furniture of different rooms." 

On June 27th, 1907, he wrote from Boscolungo, ex- 
plaining why he had written less frequently for some time : 

a For months the thumb of my right hand has been 
very sore, so that the hand has been no use, only a care: 
which added to very extreme weakness has made writing 
even more impossible. ... I am to-day just half way 
between seventy-four and seventy-five. I no more count 
years, but days. The past six months have been marked 
with severe trials, but also with signal mercy; the next 
six, if I live or die, are in God's hands. . . . We find 
the house even more roomy and commodious than we ex- 
pected. . . . Of course, all is rustic and rough. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 369 

Provisions seem abundant. . . . Between Dexter and 
me we have a good supply of books. . . . The trio 
stay in a pretty sitting room on the ground floor, sewing, 
reading aloud or writing. ... So far I have stayed 
in my room and bed ; but have been carried up and 
down three times by Mary and Dexter, or by Mary and 
Eliza, the cook. The stairs are steep and narrow. Of 
course, 1,400 metres above sea level, it is cold ; but wrapped 
up, like the sick baby which I am, I am now by an open 
window with a smiling landscape. Boscolungo is a mile 
away with its hotels ; cabs and carts move swiftly up and 
down the great road, here nearly level. Tuscany and 
Modena and another great division of Italy corner here. 
I suffer a good deal . . . and Sunday when it rained 
the torture extorted cries for mercy. ... I enjoy 
my daily chapter in the Bible, and calling up, even re- 
constructing, dear old hymns learned when a babe and 
long out of mind, and am mightily stirred by the reports 
in the Southern Baptist Convention Minutes, and en- 
couraged about the Italian work, and 'All the days of my 
appointed time will I wait till my change come.' Per- 
haps later this summer I may feel better and stronger." 

On July 15th, 1907, he wrote from Boscolungo, dic- 
tating to his daughter. After discussing fully some plans 
which concerned the welfare of his son, he referred to him- 
self: 

" . . . I have been kept almost constantly in bed 
by my weakness and by the cold. . . . June and 
July seem to have been inverted. . . . When life 
and spirits have seemed at the lowest ebb, God has not 



370 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

allowed me utterly to sink, and one day when I was full 
of fear for what might be coming I found great comfort 
in the text, 'What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee.' 
I am now hoping every day for some real July weather. 
Is the moon at fault ? And if it is Mars, I wish the Con- 
ference at La Hague would dethrone him. For a fort- 
night I have read almost nothing. ... I have en- 
joyed the Century Bible on I and II Corinthians; you 
know the book; the volumes are small with good intro- 
ductions. ... I would like to send you a volume 
or two. ... I, to-day, resigned my position on the 
Revision Committee. The London Society had politely 
asked me to associate some one with me to represent me 
and help me when I was too unwell for the duty, but it 
seemed wiser to lay down entirely a burden which, how- 
ever honorable, is now too heavy for me to bear." 

The next letter, dictated to his daughter, and dated 
Boscolungo, July 28th, 1907, gave much space to the 
affairs of the one to whom he wrote : 

" The 139th Psalm comes home to me as 

never before and I feel the force of that verse, 'I am fear- 
fully and wonderfully made.' My body is still a great 
mystery to me, but how keen its susceptibilities for 
pleasure and for pain!" 

The next letter, dated Boscolungo, August 2nd, 1907, 
was to Cabell, and was dictated to Mary: 

" . . . At 11 o'clock Dexter left in the bright 
moonlight, on a donkey, with a party of gentlemen to 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 371 

make the ascension of Monte Cimone. The latter part was 
too steep even for the donkeys, and they had to scramble 
up on their own feet. They arrived at the Refuge, 
and then, after a hurried breakfast, hastened to the summit 
to see the sunrise, and the vast prospect of mountains, to 
the Adriatic on one side and the Carrara Mountains on 
the other. Of course they got back here quite tired, the 
excursion having occupied just thirteen hours. 
There is ever the comfort that I am always in the hands 
of a kind, heavenly Father. Whether I am to get better 
and get out again remains to be seen. It will be all right 
either way." 

On August 11th, Dr. Taylor, at Boscolungo, dictated 
a letter to Spotswood and his wife Louise. He alludes 
to Dr. Charles Euchariste de'Medici Sajous, author of 
numerous medical books ; a member of twenty-two 
scientific bodies, and Knight of the Legion of Honor of 
France ; dean and professor in the Jefferson Medical 
College : 

" ... If you have seen my last to George you 
know of the kindness of a French physician, long of the 
University of Pennsylvania, who is visiting some rela- 
tions a few doors from us and who volunteered to pay me 
a visit. I count this a real Providence. . . . The 
doctor says I have no real disease. He is very kind and 
very clever. . . . True religion consists first of all 
of trust, humble trust in Jesus Christ. My own ex- 
perience is summed up in some dimly remembered lines 



372 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

of a hymn learned long ago, and which runs somewhat 

thus: 

'My grief and burden long have been 
Because I could not cease from sin; 
The more I strove against its power, 
I sinned and stumbled but the more, 
Till late I heard my Saviour say: 
Come hither, child; I am the Way. 
So, glad I come, and thou, blest Lamb, 
Wilt take me to Thee as I am; 
Nothing but sin have I to give, 
Nothing but love shall I receive.' 

On September 3rd, 1907, the family left Boscolungo 
and went to Maresca, a few miles distant. Here several 
weeks were spent. 

A letter from his son, who had been on a trip along New 
River, recalled the scenes of his early life as the following 
letter, dated Maresca, September 22nd, 1907, and dic- 
tated to Mary, shows: 

" . . . I remember so well New River. 
I recall attending the Associations when I was agent for 
various causes, once for our State Mission Board ; I went 
on horseback and it was fine. I had a horse at Buchanan ; 
when I got to the Association, I tied him at the best place 
I could, but it was very steep. When I came out he was 
down; I was scared. The brethren helped me get 
him up. I drenched him, afraid I should have the 
horse to pay for, but I got back all right. 
The railroad was to Jackson's River. Mr. Mason gave me 
an order for a buggy and pair. I invited Alfred Dickin- 
son to go with me. When we got into the carriage the 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 373 

horse reared up again and again, as Mr. Mason said he 
would, then we drove to the White Sulphur. . . . 
At Covington there was a toll bridge; I thought to save 
toll and forded, but had to pay toll just the same. Those 
covered bridges ! I can see them now. ... I usually 
lodged at the jail, the jailer being a Baptist. Once I 
remember a negro slept in the same room. I didn't 
mind, but I was tormented by the howlings of a maniac 
confined in the jail. Twice my buggy wheel broke at 
almost the same point. I had to have the wheel mended 
while I waited." 

Dr. Taylor continued weak and suffered much. It 
was therefore decided to return at once to Rome, where he 
might enjoy the comforts and liberty of his own home. 
He had rallied from so many serious attacks that even 
the dear ones, who were with him, did not realize that 
the end was near. His daughter wrote to one of her 
brothers in America that he might die in six months or 
outlive his children. The following letter from Mary 
gives some idea of the complications which had to be 
met when, from a village in the Apennines, near Modena, 
she wished to go with one quite sick and frail, all the way 
to Home : 

" . . . The plan now is for us to leave here Tues- 
day morning and take the hour's drive to Pracchia, put 
up at the hotel there and see Dexter and Susy on their 
way to Siena. We meant to leave that night for Rome, 
Father in the first-class wagon-lit [sleeper] and I in third, 
with our summer's cook; but it is impossible to get the 
sleeper before Wednesday night, so I suppose we shall 



374 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

wait and let Lisa go on. The procuring of this sleeper 
proves a complicated affair from these country places. I 
wrote to Bologna to know how to go about it and received 
reply that I must telegraph to Vienna, paying for a reply 
and sending the money. At the funny little low stone in- 
terior, with the quaint kitchen in the background and the 
baby playing on the ground, the young woman telegraph- 
operator took about an hour for this famous telegram, 
never having sent one 'all' estero [to a foreign country] 
before. When it was finally accomplished she said she 
could not send a vaglia telegraphico [a telegraphic money 
order], as this was only a post office of second ordine 
[second class]. I must go to Bardalone or San Marcello, 
several miles off. This I combined with a drive for 
Father, but there the male operator, son of the pizzicagnolo 
[butcher] , was even more ignorant ; was sure it could 
not be sent to the telegraphic address given me from 
Bologna, Schlafsivagen-Wien [Sleeping car, Vienna], as 
he was sure Schlafswagen must be the name of the 
town, and received the announcement that Vienna 
is in Austria as a sensational piece of news. He refused 
to send it to anything less than a Compagnia. So we com- 
promised on 'Comp. Inter. Wagon-lits.' Then came the 
mighty operation of finding out how many crowns 18 
francs would be, which he said would be so complicated 
that he would send the bill and receipt the next day 
through the telegraph sposina of Maresca. I still await 
his bill and receipt and wonder how much this blessed 
sleeper will end by costing. We have gotten the reply 
to the Maresca telegram, saying a sleeper will be reserved 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 375 

for the 25th, but omitting to give the number of the berth. 
I hope they will connect the Maresca telegram with 
Bardalone money order. It is like negotiating for the 
purchase of Poland." 

From Maresca Dr. Taylor sent a number of picture 
postal cards to Cabell, and on September 23rd, a brief 
letter, the last thing he ever wrote with his own hand. 
The following letter of Mary to her sister describes the 
journey to Rome. It is dated Rome, September 26th: 

" . . . Yesterday and last night were about the 
longest twenty-four hours I ever saw. Even at Pracchia 
there was sirocco, and Father gave up even sitting up, 
recognizing that his donkey ride was out of the question. 
In the afternoon Father and I both made fruit- 
less efforts to nap, and read 'The Crime of the Boulevard,' 
which is terrible but interesting. . . . Made several 
efforts to find out if a telegram had come from 
Schlafswagen ; went over and had another talk with 
the capo stazione [station agent], engaged facchini 
[porters] to carry Father and impedimenta ; made 
myself tea ; got the perfectly satisfactory bill and 
paid it and tipped the servants to their satis- 
faction. Father, very generous minded about the money, 
gave me carte blanche, to do my best, which was a great 
help. I could get him to eat nothing all day save a little 
milk, a drop of broth, a bunch of grapes. The last wing- 
less hours dragged; it began to deluge with rain and 
dark as ink. About 8.30 p. m. I went over and bought 
Father's first-class and my second-class ticket. It was 
lucky I had not taken a third-class ticket, as you will 



370 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

hear. I ordered hot milk for Father, but he closed his 
teeth and left it. At last the facchini came, but were most 
clumsy about carrying him in a straight-up chair. 
Fortunately the rain held up. We got to the platform ten 
minutes before the train was due. . . . The train was 
nearly an hour late; Father got quite worn out and began 
to groan aloud. . . . Finally . . . the train 
rushed up ; then we had a simply dreadful time getting 
him on. . . . When the train whirled away after the 
one minute's stop, which the capo stazione must have pro- 
longed, Father was somehow in a knot of blankets in a 
berth. ... I had flung my things into a second-class 
compartment full of priests and strangers, aided by a 
kind Samaritan, whom I had been hating shortly before 
for staring. ... I fixed Father the best I could 
and got off at the first brief stay of the train. The Lord 
had really providentially put my second-class compartment 
next to the Pullman. What I should have done if I had 
taken third I don't know. ... I found my things 
scattered over the crowded compartment, but the people 
were really kind. The train stops only a moment at each 
place, so I spent my time vibrating and anxiously peering 
out. Strange to say, of Father's hat, cap, mitts, valise, my 
dear bag George gave me, lunch basket, rug, shawl strap 
and two pillows and mug, only the mug was left. 
At Florence all the nice people got out and a very common 
set of people crowded the compartment. A very ordinary 
Neapolitan family in white shoes, dusters and crimpy, 
hatless hair, I thought were going to be trying. ... I 
knew I was too excited to sleep myself, so I fixed my 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 377 

pillow on my lap for the little girl to have a nap, and the 
little kindness seemed to quite change the atmosphere, 
and make the woman different. ... I fixed Father's 
window and covered him well, explained the situation 
concisely, forcibly and audibly ; made him stretch out his 
arm and touch the bell; told him the porter was pining 
to wait on him. . . . The porter kept longing for 
his dear Austrian trains in which there is a communica- 
tion between cars. One comfort, he was very good form, 
and helped me in and out as if I had been the Duchess. 
The porter behaved like an angel. I went no 
more, but at every station he hung out on his platform 
and told me how our baby was getting on, quite peace- 
fully. At Orte he said Father wanted me to come at last 
station before Rome to dress him and he would come for 
me. I got Father a hot bowl of coffee, but there was not 
time to convey it to him, so I had to drink it, and the heat 
of it was comforting. The second half was so black and 
plenteous I donated it to a funny, red-headed boy who 
had lost his hat. . . . He smiled such appreciation 
as only a boy's stomach, and a red-headed boy at that, 
could. At Cammini I again entered the beleaguered city, 
found Father enthusiastic about porter's kindness ; he 
said the night had been tolerable and allowed himself 
to be dressed. . . . The Roman campagna looked 
lovely; all purple and brown shades with grey oxen just 
like one of Carlandi's pictures. Ecco Roma ! The porter, 
thoroughly my friend for two more francs, said that we 
had better wait until the train emptied to get Father out, 
and of course I would be met. I said: 'Of course.' 



378 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

I wished I had telegraphed to Paschetto or 
Galassi. However, when I got out, no one was there, not 
even Vincenzo. I engaged two good facchini, who con- 
sulted with the Pullman porter, decided a chair would be 
best, and went for it. They were gone some time and I 
stood by the stuff. Suddenly the scene changes. Yincenzo 
appears, smiling, looking a very respectable servant; 
Adolfo, a howling swell in a beautiful overcoat; Lillian, 
younger and more distinguished in a new brown hat and 
travelling suit. They had come to fetch us with their 
automobile. . . . The facchini reappear with a nice, 
comfortable, padded chair into which a fairly smiling 
1 Angelical'* is put tenderly, wrapped in rug, and a most 
distinguished procession moves to the buffet.' ... I 
have so often felt ourselves a shabby show; now we are a 
really elect spectacle. . . . Adolfo quietly affection- 
ate, but he mesmerizes the situation; the waiters in the 
buffet feel we are very important. ... I have a 
coffee, Father orders consomme, takes only one spoonful 
and then orders Yincenzo to eat it for him. 
Amidst an amphitheatre of faces we all get into the motor 
and are very gently tooted along not to shake Father. 

I could have cried with the comfort of being 
so lovingly, so competently cared for. . . . The 
chauffeur brought Father up in his arms, and they left. 
I cannot describe what their meeting me meant. It was 
like those restful solutions in novels. Agnese, neat and 



*"The Angelical" (doctor), a name bestowed upon Dr. Taylor by 
his family circle. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 379 

dear, awaited us; the house nicely cleaned seems a para- 
dise. I am so glad to be in it." 

The story of the days following the return to Rome is 
told in a letter from Mary to her brothers. She and 
Dr. Taylor arrived in Rome Thursday morning. She 
wrote : 

"... He was so pleased that morning to be at 
home in his own room and with his loving Agnese to 
attend him. . . . Soon after we arrived, the servant 
brought Dr. Sajous' card with the message that he had 
called to hear if we had arrived. Father said at once 
that he wished me to go and arrange a dinner of 
gentlemen in Dr. Sajous' honor, as he was going to leave 
the city so soon to sail; that he would get away unless I 
was quick. I promised as soon as my trunk came I would 
do so. He said he felt about honoring Dr. Sajous as 
Mary did about the precious ointment for Christ's feet. 
Dr. Sajous' advice had been so helpful. He hoped now 
to be much better, that he must take a drive next day. 
He talked about wanting to help our porter in a more 
systematic way so that the family could put something 
into the post office savings bank for the hard summer 
months. Asked for his letter to George but seemed per- 
fectly satisfied when I told him I had already sent it. 
Said he wanted the letter to Cabell, which I enclose. The 
time passed in my unpacking his valise and attending to 
things about the house with reference to getting in order 
for having a dinner for Dr. Sajous. He said he would get 
some new linen for the house. He enjoyed his broth and 



380 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

a peach — seemed so much interested in everything. After 
lunch there was a young fellow came with a tale of woe, 
no work and no money — wanted enough for a third-class 
ticket to Ancona. Father made me usher him into his 
room and made him write out his tale ; ordered Agnese to 
give him something to eat, invited him to dinner next 
day, which he said he would get up to share. In the night 
he suffered acutely. . . . Friday he felt better in the 
morning, but by midday began to be very feverish. How- 
ever, he dictated two notes to help the young man get a 
place or help, and said if he returned without either I 
must give him the money to go to Ancona, which I did. 
Of course he was not able to get up and seemed to feel 
much more unwell, suffering so with his head. 
His fever made me uneasy. At 4 Dr. Sajous and Signor 
Giorni called, and the former went in, but Father was 
too weary to say much. He only squeezed his hand and 
said: 'My dear, good friend.' After they left, I sent for 
Burroni, our own doctor, but the porter returned to say 
he was out of town. Agnese and I were up with Father 
all night. ... I was alarmed, and as soon as I could 
get off I took a carriage and went to ask W. Wall what 
doctor was in town. ... I found that one was at 
the German hospital and went there and got him. He 
said pulse was bad and fever nearly 104°. Said to 
nourish him often. He had objected to food so much in 
the last weeks I was surprised at his readiness to take 
food and stimulants. Every time we left the room to get 
something he would say: 'Don't go.' 'What time is it?' 
At 12.30 I was so alarmed at his appearance I gave him 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 381 

brandy and water . . . and he passed away in one 
moment. ... in my arms, without any struggle at 
the last." 

Dr. Taylor died Saturday morning September 28th, 
1907. The funeral took place on Monday. A letter from 
Mary describes the funeral and the incidents connected 
with it. The Roman law would not allow the body to 
remain in the home beyond Sunday night, so it was 
carried that night to the cemetery, where the funeral 
took place the next afternoon. Mary wrote : 

" . Several of the church people came to look 

at his face, but with the most exquisite and loving 
reverence. They had a memorial service at the church at 
7, and at 8 came here for a service around the coffin, which 
was placed in the parlour. Hannibal More, who loved 
Father like a son, conducted it very sweetly, and there 
was a prayer in English by one of the Methodists. Some- 
how it had none of the awfulness of a funeral. His own 
portrait, above the illuminated parchment given by the 
church, looked down on the casket, covered with his own 
favorite red carnations and other flowers. With the lights, 
it was somehow bright and lovely. Adolfo, Dexter and 
Hannibal went with the coffin to the cemetery. 
The funeral was at 5 o'clock Monday; the air soft, the 
sky rose-colored above the cypresses, all the brilliant 
autumn flowers in bloom. There were many wreaths and 
flowers and palms, and a good many present, but, of 
course, not as it would have been in the winter. It was 
the most beautiful funeral. . . . Lovely addresses 
were made by Signor Galassi and Dr. Clark — Dr. Clark's 



382 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

address being peculiarly tender and appropriate — and 
prayers by Signer Conti and Campbell Wall, who had 
come on purpose from Florence; one stanza of 'Shall we 
gather at the river?' and one of 'Su verde colle nel poese 
dove spunta il sol. 9 I had insisted that the funeral should 
not be long, and before the dusk fell, we started back, 
after seeing the grave filled and innumerable flowers cover 
it and mother's grave." 

On Sunday, September 27th, 1908 (while this book 
was in press), a memorial tablet to the memory of Dr. 
Taylor was unveiled in the Staunton Baptist Church. 
Upon this occasion the Rev. Dr. Charles Manly, who im- 
mediately succeeded Dr. Taylor in the pastorate in 
Staunton, delivered a memorial address, and the Rev. Dr. 
O. F. Gregory, the pastor of the church, read lines he had 
composed. The tablet was provided through the free gifts 
of many who knew and loved Dr. Taylor, no one giving 
more than a dollar. Dr. Gregory's poem, entitled "A 
Tribute of Love: In Memory of Dr. George Boardman 
Taylor," read as follows: 

A noble mission is fulfilled, 

The dear, brave, loyal heart is stilled, 

The faithful lips are dumb; 
The busy hands find rest at last, 
The work is o'er, the conflict passed, 

And peace is come. 

Those white, still lips beneath the sod 
Many a soul have won for God; 

And who may tell 
How many hearts that patient pen 
Has blessed, and cheered and soothed again 

At Baca's well! 



BEV. GEOEGE BOAEDMAN TAYLOB, D. D. 383 

With loving seeds by the wayside sown, 
Many an erring one he has borne 

To Jesus' feet; 
And in these homes his words of prayer 
Have made the sorrow seem less drear, 

The joys more sweet. 

Then, when the Master's loving hand 
Had led him from his native land 

To preach "at Rome"— 
With steadfast faith, and courage high 
The cross was borne, to do and die 

In his new home. 

So day by day his faint feet trod 
The path that led him nearer God 

And nearer home; 
And then his footsteps touched the brim 
Of Jordan's waters cold and dim 

With dashing foam. 

"The faith" was kept; "the course" was run, 
The final victory grandly won! 

And now the King 
Doth grace his brow, all seamed with scars, 
With wondrous crown of "many stars," 

While anthems ring. 

During the last years of Dr. Taylor's life no one was 
so constantly his companion as his daughter, Mary Argyle 
Taylor. The following is from her pen: 

"During the service of Good Friday, when St. Peter's 
is thronged with people from all over the world, thirteen 
lighted candles stand on the High Altar while the Lament- 
ations and Penetential Psalms are chanted. One hy one, 
at intervals, these candles are put out, until only one re- 



384 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

mains lit, which is carried behind the altar and kept 
there while the famous Miserere is sung. It is curiously 
impressive, the vast, dark church with the kneeling people, 
and that one tiny flame burning to symbolize Christ's 
being hidden in the tomb, but not extinguished. Everyone 
is more keenly conscious of that one concealed taper than 
of the twelve which stand upon the altar. This abased, 
but steadily burning, light always reminded me of my 
father's penetrating and pervasive influence. Apparently 
segregated from his fellow-men during the latter years of 
his life by deafness and frail health, compelled to spend 
three-fourths of his time in bed, having to gradually 
relinquish his part in outside engagements, and be 
patronised by his inferiors because they could hear and 
walk around, while he was restrained by physical ailments, 
his spirit was not embittered nor his spiritual force 
abated. 

"What impressed everyone most about him, whether 
he spoke or kept silent, was his saintliness ; and it was 
curious how this noiseless personality crossed the barriers 
of language and nationality and was felt by high and low, 
so that while the ignorant peasant of the Basilicata called 
him a waxen Jesus, his brethren sought his counsel and 
approval, and men like Spurgeon and Philip Schaff felt 
in him a kinship of spirit. Valets may not recognize 
heroes, but, according to Wesley's interpretation of 
religion, they must know who are the genuine Christians, 
and the middle-aged serving man who waited on us in 
the Carrara Mountains decided that in the course of his 
life he had only met two real saints : one was the venerable 



EEV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 385 

Marchese Durazzo of Genoa, and the other was my father. 
A like testimony was rendered by everyone who served 
him. A lifelong study of the gospel and a constant com- 
munion with God, into which he took the greatest and 
the pettiest care, had bred in him a piety as deep as it was 
without austerity. In some, religion repels ; but with him 
it passed through the alembic of a just mind and 'a nature 
sloping to the Southern side/ so that even alien spirits 
saw the beauty of holiness. A naturally quick temper 
and incisive tongue had been reduced to control, so that 
men who knew him as an old man thought him preemi- 
nently meek, and though inheriting the sensitive, high- 
strung temperament of what Holmes calls the Brahmin 
class of New England there was nothing mean or sour 
in his temper. He used to say that he had learned much 
from his wife in never letting things rankle, and that the 
generous healthiness of her nature had helped correct any- 
thing morbid in his. He had the charity which thinketh 
no ill, and a great patience with the mistakes and sins 
of the young, saying that men slough off many faults 
merely by living and that he had too many follies of his 
own to remember, not to give others the benefit of the 
doubt. A power of seeing the other man's side was in- 
stanced in his favorite saying that we should not hold 
people to what we considered the logical consequence of 
their premises. His mind had a judicial character, and 
before becoming a minister, he read law with keen zest, 
and delighted in going to hear the men who made the 
Southern bar illustrious. He loved argument as a gym- 
nastic of the mind and revelled in discussion of abstract 



386 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and concrete questions, so that one of his other children 
said that he missed his oldest daughter the most, because 
she disagreed with him the most. On the other hand, 
with that keen truthfulness which can never be forgotten, 
he used to warn the same daughter not be pugnacious and 
always in the opposition ; and tease her by saying that he 
had never seen her so really attractive as on one occasion 
when too sleepy to argue she had merely fanned herself 
and graciously agreed with all he told her. 

"Coming to Italy when a series of mistakes and errors 
on the part of men who knew neither the complicated 
field nor the Italian people, he found the Baptist cause 
a bit of burnt-off ground with an ugly scandal annexed. 
Even the name of Baptist was in evil repute, and his 
being a Southerner was against him, as people were full 
of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and deeply prejudiced against 
foreigners who belonged to a slave-holding people. The 
other denominations resented the advent of another divi- 
sion in the work. His intercourse with them was such 
that in a few years, Dr. McDougall, representing the Free 
Church of Scotland in Florence, pronounced him the 
godliest man in the evangelical work, and his relations 
with all the ministers were cordial and pleasant. 

" Those who heard it never forgot a little speech he 
made when representing the Baptists at the Waldensian 
tricentenary of their 'Glorious Return' to their Valleys. 
He told of the Scotchman who, walking in a thick white 
mountain-mist, saw a horrible monster approaching which, 
when he summoned nerve to penetrate the fog, and touch, 
proved to be his dear brother John rendered terrible by 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 387 

the rolling vapor, adding: 'Let not the mists of miscon- 
ception and prejudice part us; let me be your brother 
George to help and love you.' And his spirit and actions so 
well bore out his words that several of the more prominent 
Waldensians used to speak of him afterwards affectionate- 
ly by the title of our brother George. An Italian minister 
of another denomination said after his death : 'In the often 
stormy meetings of our Evangelical Alliance, he was 
always the dove of peace, bearing the olive branch.' 

"Under his gentleness was concealed a strong sense of 
justice and insight into character. After he became deaf 
to all voices but those of his daughters, one wondered he 
could so correctly size up people, but his family found 
that in the long run his estimate of men was far more 
just than theirs, and mingled with this clear discern- 
ment was a saving sense of humor which smiled while it 
perceived, and twinkled afterwards into observations 
too acute to be reported. He could not hear, unless it was 
repeated to him, what people said, but he watched their 
faces, their gestures and unconscious mannerisms, and 
proved Emerson's axiom : 'What you are speaks so loud 
I cannot hear what you say.' 

"With his fellow-missionaries he went out of his way 
to be friendly and generous, seeking to render every 
courtesy and kindness possible and ready to love and 
admire all their gifts. Sometimes his household grew 
impatient of his discovering so many virtues in Aristides, 
but his attitude was partly due to his anxiety that he 
might not fall into any discord with his fellow-workers, 
remembering petty quarrels among missionaries when his 



388 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

father was Secretary of the Board and desiring to live at 
peace with all men. 

"He was an ardent and firm Baptist, but no man was 
more magnanimous in his relations to other denomina- 
tions. He condemned such phrases as 'We Baptists are 
not too smart to follow the Word of God' as implying a 
discourtesy and uncharitableness to other Christians, but 
he wrote and spoke clearly and well on the Baptist posi- 
tion, both in Italian and English. Since his death the 
ministers in Southern Italy have decided to republish 
at their own expense his chapter on Baptism, from the 
Manual of Theology, as the best statement of their views 
which they can find. 

"Anglo-Saxons have sometimes treated their Italian 
brethren as inferiors and called them to account as they 
would underlings. My father's feeling was that the 
evangelists must feel responsible to God rather than to 
him. He treated them as gentlemen, expecting the same 
in return, having a genuine sense of the dignity of every 
human being, and believing that men respond to what is 
expected of them. Generally he was justified in this ex- 
pectation, and if in one solitary case the minister to whom 
he had forgiven the most, from whom endured the most 
and to whom, perhaps, loaned the most, was the one to mis- 
represent and criticize him, and write the most insulting 
and thorny letters, this was due rather to wrong-headed- 
ness than to aught else. Perhaps there have to be cranks 
to keep the world from becoming monotonous. 

"Italians are suspicious and quick to attribute the most 
ignoble motives when things displease them, so that his 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 389 

thirty-odd years' administration brought him many insult- 
ing letters, many vexing problems which made sleepless 
nights, but he learned to take it all first to God, and never 
to make a decision and send off a letter written in the 
first heat, but to modify and rewrite it so that there might 
be no acrimonious counter thrust. He used to say that 
he had learned that he must either thicken his skin or 
die, and that he decided to live, but those who loved him 
felt that it was not a very tough skin even then. 

"Of course his delicate health and deafness brought 
many disappointments, many mortifications. He had to 
learn to be counted out among the active ones. Once 
when a sister church was holding its annual meeting at 
which representatives of the other denominations were 
expected to express sympathy, he took a carriage, at some 
inconvenience, and went, with a carefully prepared and 
friendly address. His presence was ignored, a lesser man 
spoke in his stead ; and, knowing what an effort his coming 
had been, his daughter accompanied him home with a 
lump in her throat and a little bitterness in her heart. 
But when they got to his room, and he had been divested 
of the carefully saved black coat which made such a 
background for his delicately chiselled face, he said: 

" 'My precious, you must not worry. It hurt me at 
first, but it is the discipline God sees I need. I must 
just learn to be nothing if He wishes. You and I must 
take these things to Him.' 

"After which his spirit seemed to rebound sunnily, and 
the only effect of the episode was increased tenderness 
for his companion. 



390 LIFE AND LETTEES OF 

"With a certain buoyancy was united unusual poise 
which enabled him to retreat to the hermitage of a quiet 
mind when there was confusion of tongues, and the super- 
ficial who had never tried it made dogmatic criticisms on 
the work, and insisted on methods which he had long 
used or discarded. 

"No man could have such a field as his for the last 
thirty-five years of his life without seasons of discourage- 
ment and temptation, but he reasoned so : Do I think this 
work should be abandoned? No. Well, if I give it up 
and go back, they will have to send out another man, who 
will know even less than I do of the complications, and 
he will lose some years in getting the experience I have 
gained. My return will discourage others ; I will stick it 
out. And this he did through isolation, vexations, trials, 
good and evil report, and even in this world he reaped his 
reward from the land of his adoption in the love of many, 
and a unique trust in the crystal integrity of his heart 
and purpose. After he had resigned the administrations 
of the Mission the ministers and little churches vied with 
one another to do him honor, and show him affection 
with a truly loving grace peculiarly Italian. 

"In a meeting of the Baptist Union in Rome, when the 
gathered ministers from all over Italy had been moved to 
tears, and stirred to fresh resolution by his address on the 
duties of the minister in his home, they sent out in haste 
for a great sheaf of red roses, and the son of one of the 
ministers was entrusted with it as an expression of their 
love and gratitude. As the young fellow stepped up on the 
platform towards him, and held out the flowers with their 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 391 

mute language, my father threw his arms spontaneously 
around the lad's neck and kissed him, so that the virile 
young head and the delicate, venerable one meeting above 
the roses made a picture which brought down the house 
in a wave of applause mingled with smiles and tears. 

"A rigid economist in all personal things, he was gen- 
erous in giving not only to the church, missions and the 
poor, but delighted in sending a doll to a child, books or 
gloves to a young girl, a picture or jewel to a bride. He 
was fond of Oliver Wendell Holmes' saying that every 
man is an omnibus carrying all his ancestors in himself, 
and it was eminently true of him, for he combined the 
lavish generosity of his paternal English grandfather with 
the close economy of the saving, fastidious, scholarly 
New England stock of which his mother came ; but he 
made the most beautiful division of these inherited 
qualities. The munificent gifts and loans were for the 
needy, but he saved a crust of bread for his own next 
meal when travelling, and no economy was too small 
which touched himself only. His children cannot see 
without tenderness certain little black account books in 
which every item was entered and the close calculations 
made, which rendered possible the travel and books which 
usually fall only to the rich. 

"One of his daughters was a bad sailor, and in crossing 
to the island of Sardinia she was so sick and limp that 
when they took the train at the Golfo degli Aranci, she 
did not notice much when he said he would go into another 
compartment so she could lie down. It was only after 
some distance, she discovered that he had put her into first- 



392 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

class and was travelling third himself. He saved every 
centime when travelling for the Mission and as an agent. 

"While sympathizing with and helping the Italian 
evangelists to the extent of his power, he insisted on a 
careful economy and business accuracy, and said he was 
not ashamed to be called, like a great English statesman, 
'the watch dog of the treasury.' His mind was an unusual 
combination, having a capacity for abstract philosophical 
reasoning and an almost excessive care for practical de- 
tails. His fellow-traveller was sometimes vexed by the 
deliberation and attention with which he scanned every 
item of a bill, but the waiter was always conciliated in 
the end by a generous tip, and welcomed him next time 
with a warm smile and a remembrance of the frugal meal 
he ordered. 

"His gentle but very decided personality and delicate 
waxen face with its bright blue eyes was never forgotten, 
and it might be years before he returned to a place, but 
he was always promptly recognized even by the most 
casual observer. His children said they could never travel 
unobserved because they were always identified by him. 
A stranger struck by his appearance one day in the 
crowded Via Calzaiuoli, gazing at the statue of St. George 
on the Or San Michele, recognized him long afterwards 
when they met in a mountain village, and after they had 
become good friends wrote the acrostic on his name, given 
above. 

"Personally he cared not at all for material luxuries. 
A small, battered valise, bought in London in 1870, con- 
taining a Bible, a Testament, a comb and a few flannels, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 393 

was all he required, but his daughters must always have 
a trunk. 'I want you to have your white frocks and your 
best bonnets,' he would say, and he loved to bring them 
back from his trips a bit of filmy lace or a pair of gloves, 
being fastidious in such things for a woman. Especially 
after their mother's death he gave to his daughters the most 
chivalrous love and care, seeking to take her place and 
give them the sympathy she would have yielded in their 
joys and sorrows. Feeling that their mother had largely 
worn herself out in the service of others, he sought the 
more to spare them, and paid them the delicate attentions 
and loving homage which women usually receive only from 
their lovers. For his oldest daughter, who from circum- 
stances was most constantly with him in his latter years, 
he found the prettiest compliments, improvised verses 
and culled from literature the sweetest names, calling her 
by turns his 'little son Eric,' his 'Lovey Mary,' 'Hilde- 
garde,' after a fiery but favorite heroine, and many 
another. During his last year he seemed to feel even 
more than usual the pressing needs of our little brothers 
and sisters, the poor, and one day as she was moving 
about his room, he said: 'My dearest, I have been think- 
ing I should like to give you something really beautiful, 
a jewel or breast-pin, you could keep always — but when 
I see the poor around us, I just cant ; the money must go 
to them.' And it did. For his hearer such precious words 
made opals pale and diamonds dim. On her twentieth 
birthday he sent her a small bottle of Frangipani perfume 
with one of his charmingly penned notes in which he said 
that he loved this scent because her mother had always 



394 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

used it when they were first married. His deafness 
seemed to make his other senses more acute : nothing 
escaped his keen, sea-blue eyes, and he had the suscepti- 
bility of a delicate organization to the faintest fragrance. 
We could never see lemon-verbena growing without begging 
a sprig for him, and the friend who dubbed him 'the 
Angelical Doctor,' a name so apt that it became general, 
said she loved to see him absent-mindedly pull out his 
pocket handkerchief and shower around the dry aromatic 
leaves and little drifts of rose petals which he had thrust 
into his pocket. His youngest son remarked that his 
sisters were spoiled for living with 'human' men, because 
they would expect them to be like their father. It was 
not to his own wife and daughters alone that he gave the 
generous care American men are so prompt to render to 
their families, but to every woman he met. He often 
quoted Napoleon's saying, 'Respect the burden bearer,' 
when he made us make way for the peasants, and when 
almost too weak to sit up he would pull himself to his 
feet to greet a woman, fetch a foot-stool or place a chair, 
so that to many he was the embodiment of Colonel New- 
come. Two days before he died, when he reached the 
Rome station, exhausted by the long night journey, he 
was carried into the railroad buffet, and a cup of 
hot broth ordered for his restoration. He was too sick 
to take it. He beckoned to the needy porter, who had 
come to fetch the luggage, and made him drink it, know- 
ing that the fellow was always half hungry. The rest of 
us chafed at the delay for the invalid, but he would not 
be gainsaid. In the rushing, crowded New York streets 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 395 

when he picked up a stranger's whip, and restored it with 
a smile and doffed hat, there was in the act the fine flavour 
of a day when men had the leisure for good manners. 

"Such a physical limitation as deafness often causes 
even good men to close in upon themselves, grow self- 
centered, and refuse even those social joys which remain 
to them. With him it was not so ; his sympathies of heart 
and head seemed to grow every year keener and wider. 
Much given to hospitality, high and low breakfasted, 
supped and dined at his board. We slept on sofas so our 
guests might have the beds, and there was a recollection 
in the family of the father's going to a hotel more than 
once to accommodate guests. To what an extent enter- 
taining was practiced was instanced by a humorous ac- 
count my mother used to give of returning one 
snowy evening in Staunton with her husband, from 
a round of pastoral calls, and finding a perfectly 
strange old man and his wife comfortably installed 
on each side of her bedroom fire, who, without moving, 
benignly asked if she were cold and would like to get warm. 
Neither she nor my father had ever seen them before, 
but they had come in from the country to supper and 
spend the night. It was the minister's house ; this minister 
was paid in Confederate notes and his wife bore him eight 
children and much of the time had no servant. Their 
hospitality was inspired by a double motive, a strong con- 
viction of the duty enjoined on the bishop to show 
hospitality and the Virginian's pleasure in entertaining. 
I can never forget how, even after he was too deaf to hear 
his guests, his bright, eager eyes would watch each one's 



396 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

mouth so as not to interrupt, and then when he saw a 
slight break would dash in with Rupert-like impetuosity 
to tell an apt story or quote a bright mot. The last day 
of his life, when worn to gossamer by sleepless nights and 
weary days, he arranged for the employment and the feed- 
ing at his table of a beggar, and on the same day made his 
daughter organize a dinner party for a distinguished 
physician who had attended him during the summer. 

" 'I want to show him honor,' he said, 'even if I cannot 
come to the table; it is not much, but for me it is like 
the box of ointment which Mary poured on the feet of the 
Saviour.' 

"He was ably seconded in his hospitality by my mother, 
who brought to it natural graces of mind and person, 
fostered by family traditions and a girlhood spent in the 
lavish homes of Eastern Virginia. His had been a Puri- 
tan training, hers that of the descendant of the Cavaliers, 
but they were one in all the essentials of principle and 
conduct, and he never forgot what he owed to her. The 
aureole of his wedding day never faded, and she remained 
to him the beau-ideal of womanhood. He used to say he 
had rather hear her tell about it than go to the most 
brilliant entertainment in the world. Though extremely 
susceptible to feminine beauty and charm, he valued more 
highly wit and mental gifts. His first question when he 
heard of a delightful woman was : 'Is she a fine conver- 
sationalist V esteeming with Crashaw : 

"Sydneian showers 
Of sweet discourse, whose powers 
Can crown old Winter's head with flowers." 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 397 

And it seemed peculiarly sad that a man so social should 
have been latterly cut off from the conversation of all 
but one or two people. 

"Nature is more prodigal than fiction, and fortunately 
men often possess qualities which would seem to be contra- 
dictory. This was the case with my father, who to a 
sturdy common sense and practicality united much 
romance and ideality. He never forgot the thrill of his 
first sight of Italy when after driving all day over the 
snowy Simplon Pass he reached Domodossola, and ate his 
supper by moonlight under a grape trellis within sound 
of glancing steps and tinkling mandolins. He had to the 
end a boy's love of adventure, and was keen to try new 
experiences. When people spoke of him as an old man 
it gave me a shock of surprise, for he had the dew of 
youth in his heart to the very end, and a childlike craving 
for love and approbation united to a remarkable spring 
of intellectual activity. Most men after they pass the 
meridian are content to chew the cud of what they have 
acquired, but he was always welcoming new ideas, striking 
out new lines of reading and study, giving forth freshly 
assimilated information. While intensely loyal to Vir- 
ginia and his own upbringing, he was ready to enjoy and 
recognize the beauty and goodness he found in Europe. 
Though he had spent his youth and early manhood in a 
milieu, where there was no artistic culture whatever, he 
learned to love art for its own sake and keenly to enjoy 
the best pictures so that he roamed the galleries of 
Munich, Dresden and Vienna with true zest and never 
omitted when in Florence to spend some hours in the Uffizi 



398 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

or to visit the modern exhibitions in Venice. Against the 
dancing, theatre-going, etc., which were tabooed by his 
pious contemporaries, he uttered no invectives or diatribes. 
To forbid such things, he said, was like lopping off outward 
branches. Fill the heart with the love of God and the 
needs of humanity, set men on fire with the love of Christ, 
and such things lost significance and ceased to interest; 
to forbid these things often gave them a fictitious at- 
traction. He was deeply interested in the evangelization 
of the world and the progress of civilization, so that on 
his bed the well-worn Bible lay cheek by jowl with the 
oft-handled atlas, the daily and religious papers, while 
he dearly loved a stirring novel or a good biography. An 
omnivorous reader, and having himself a terse and clear, 
yet graceful, mastery of good Anglo-Saxon English, and a 
fair, forcible use of Italian, he was thoroughly alive to 
every man, woman and child who crossed his path. 

"He left America just when he was beginning to be 
recognized as a preacher of distinction and power, and 
had to suffer the eclipse of expressing himself in a foreign 
language undertaken at forty years old. As a speaker he 
had none of the tricks or graces of oratory; his voice, far 
stronger than his frail aspect promised, was not always 
under control, but the carefully prepared, original matter, 
clear concision, unction, and a deep conviction compelled 
and rewarded attention. As he grew older, he believed 
more and more in brevity, and his listener felt that his 
points made, he could be trusted to stop — a rarer gift 
than might be supposed. He paid his listeners the 
courtesy, and his subject the respect, to think out care- 



REV. GEORGE BOAEDMAN TAYEOR, D. D. 399 

fully what he intended to say. He never learned his ad- 
dress by heart, saying that he had no verbal memory, but 
that he never forgot a train of thought with logical 
sequence where each idea budded into the next. His dis- 
course was dug out of the Bible and the human heart, but 
it was leavened and popularized by illustrations drawn 
from his own observation and from the broader fields of 
literature and history. His sane taste revolted against 
anything hysterical or merely emotional in religion, hold- 
ing that it was apt to be followed by a drier aridity; but 
he had a deep sense of sin and of the needs of humanity 
coupled to a strong conviction of the importance of the 
preacher's message, and in his delivery of it was a tender- 
ness and sympathy which always convinced and stirred 
the heart and sometimes rose to real eloquence. In his 
preaching, as in his prayers, one felt the reality of that 
divine life for which he daily strove, the preciousness of 
the Saviour and his trust in the fatherhood of God. 

"He loved life and was keenly interested in it, and he 
had a marvellous power of recuperation which enabled 
him, when apparently at the last ebb, to pull himself to- 
gether and concentrate his physical and mental powers for 
unexpected efforts as well as to project himself with boy- 
ish buoyancy into the future. But during the last year, 
his weakness and sufferings increased, desire failed, and 
sleepless nights were the rule, so that it was little wonder 
if he began to long for 'the rest which remaineth for the 
people of God' and to almost wish that 'this old worn-out 
stuff, which is threadbare to-day,' might 'become everlast- 
ing to-morrow.' When on the 28th of September, 1907, 



400 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

his spirit slipped its 'frail covering/ those who knew him 
best felt that he was ready to enter on a wider, more un- 
fettered life, and that for him it was 

'Say not Good Night — but in some brighter clime 
Bid me Good Morning.' " 

The Rev. Henry J. Piggott, D. D., for over thirty years 
at the head of the Wesley an Mission in Rome, contributed 
for II Testimonio, the Italian Baptist paper, a tribute to 
Dr. Taylor. Dr. Piggott has kindly prepared the follow- 
ing, which is in substance what appeared in the Italian 
paper : 

"In evoking my memories of Dr. Taylor, the first thing 
that recurs to me is the impression he always gave of 
serene security in his hold upon the fundamental doctrines 
of his faith. Some Christians timidly screen their beliefs 
from the winds of doubt and denial that agitate the air 
round about them. Others give these free access at the 
cost of unsettlement and painful questioning. There was 
not the slightest evidence of either attitude in the case of 
my friend. He did not fear to read widely in the litera- 
ture of modern incredulity; his was no hot-house faith; 
he kept eye and ear liberally open to the critical, the 
agnostic, and the directly hostile movements of the reli- 
gious thought of the day. Yet his own calm and robust 
certainty, with regard to all that he had long ago accepted 
as essential truth, seemed to be utterly unaffected. His 
faith lay too deep down in the depths of his being, be- 
longed too intimately to the indubitable facts of conscious- 
ness and experience, for doubt to be possible. He never 
seemed to go back upon it; to pluck at the roots of it to 



REV. GEORGE BOAKDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 401 

see if they still held. 'He knew in Whom he had believed.' 
This personal knowledge of Christ his Saviour was clearly 
his anchorage, and kept him calm and confident what- 
ever difficulties and questionings might be stirring around. 
"This confidence of Dr. Taylor's faith was not so much 
expressed as revealed. You felt, when in contact with him, 
especially if the conversation touched spiritual notes, the 
sweet peacefulness in which he lived and moved. Perhaps 
it was in his prayers that this habit of soul made itself 
most appreciable. I have known few men to whom 
prayer seemed to be more their natural element. The 
poet's words, — Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, the 
Christian's native air, — were truly exemplified in him. 
In whatever society, after whatever preoccupation, gay or 
serious, his spirit was always ready for the exercise. He 
had but to bow the knee and you felt that he was face to 
face with God. None but one who ' dwelt in the secret 
place' could have had such immediate and constant liberty 
of access. And the simplicity, yet appropriateness, of 
utterance that followed showed how absolutely self was 
forgotten, or rather absorbed, in the Presence divine. The 
present need, the actual circumstances were thoughtfully 
gathered up and found apt expression, yet was there no 
distraction; the mercy-seat on which they were laid was 
ever fully in view. And there was a pleading earnest- 
ness, tremulous sometimes in its sympathy, which re- 
vealed at once the loving interest in those pleaded for, and 
the certainty of prevalence with the Ear that listened, 
which filled the heart of the pleader. These are sacred 
secrets of the inner life, not lightly to be unveiled, but I 



402 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

feel that without allusion to them my reminiscences of 
my revered friend would lack one most essential element. 
"It is superfluous to say that Dr. Taylor held with 
strong conviction the special tenets of his own church, and 
it belonged to his crystalline sincerity to be faithful to 
them, to whatever consequences he believed them to lead. 
I only mention this to bring out into more vivid relief 
another quality that shines in my memory of him, namely, 
his generous catholicity of spirit. His own strength and 
sincerity of conviction did not detract from his conceding 
that the convictions of others of different views were 
equally strong and sincere. Here in this Italian evangel- 
ical field such a quality has special value, and made my 
friend ever a special blessing. Where so many missions 
are working side by side, and often for reasons easy to 
understand pressing into the same centers, it is difficult 
to avoid attritions. Yet in all the thirty years and more 
of our intimate relationship I have no remembrance of 
any such attrition between Dr. Taylor and his colleagues 
in mission administration. If any such did occur, he 
was too jealous of the honour of the common Master to 
make it public. And his whole influence was ever and 
most beneficially on the side of peace and union between 
Christian workers. In any gathering of the Evangelical 
Churches for united counsel or cooperation, in any com- 
memorative festivity of a particular church or mission, his 
kindly presence and genial word might be securely counted 
upon ; and every one felt that in his case at all events 
there was no suppression or reserve to belie the absolute 
sincerity of the extended hand and fraternal speech. 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 403 

"Of Dr. Taylor's influence upon his Italian fellow- 
workers I need not speak. His correspondence, and the 
testimony of the workers themselves will bear witness to 
that. We, however, from the outside could all see with 
what filial veneration they came to regard him. We could 
see also how long and tender was his forbearance with 
weaknesses, how quick and helpful his appreciation of 
qualities that gave hope and promise, how absolutely the 
superior disappeared in the father and friend, and how 
under his gracious influence all souls anyway receptive 
grew in vigour and fruitfulness. And we all came to 
share in the veneration that grew up around him from that 
inner circle of his immediate fellow-laborers. The epithet 
of 'saint' applied to him by certain mutual English 
friends was but the apt expression of the halo of spiritual 
beauty, and gracious influence which ever more and more 
gathered round him in the eyes of all of us who enjoyed 
the privilege of his society. 

"In this our feeling towards him there entered another 
attraction without allusion to which this memorial of him 
would be incomplete. ~No one can have come into contact 
with Dr. Taylor, even casually, and not have observed his 
sweet, spontaneous courtesy of manner. There was some- 
thing about him of the old-fashioned gentleman, which 
the rude hurry of these modern times seems to be rapidly 
losing. It was nothing put on for the occasion, but 
emanated from his innermost nature. Much was due, 
no doubt, to the early upbringing of the South, but more 
had been gradually wrought into him by the refining 
influence of a close walk with Christ. There was the same 



404 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

courtesy, whoever the guest might be ; for like the principle 
from which it flowed, it had 'no respect of persons.' From 
the moment of entering the room, — at the table, in every 
gesture, in the tone of the voice, in the eye always on the 
alert to detect in any the slightest inconvenience or want — 
this quality made itself felt; simple, unaffected, sponta- 
neous, a sort of sweet fragrance that gave itself out un- 
consciously but made the whole atmosphere pleasanter. 

"But I cannot close these reminiscences without speak- 
ing of those sore trials under which the later years of 
my dear friend were passed. There were indeed mysteries 
which only 'the day' will explain. It seemed as if the 
blows of the divine Hand fell just where the spiritual 
nerves would be most sensitive. Of a disposition eminently 
social, Dr. Taylor came to be almost excluded by his 
growing deafness from taking part in the conversations 
that went on around him. There was a time in which it 
seemed as if blindness were about to deepen this seclu- 
sion. Singularly fond of work and devoted to the special 
work of the mission he superintended, there were often 
long months during which sickness laid him entirely aside. 
Sensitive almost to excess to any trouble or inconvenience 
given to others, in his last years he came to be daily 
dependent on the care, always lovingly and lavishly given, 
of those who were dearer to him than his own life. These 
are doubtless mysteries, yet to us who were witnesses of 
that 'sufficient grace' which kept him ever sweet-tempered 
and patient, ever supremely thoughtful for others, ever 
interested in outward life, ever capable of drinking in 
enjoyment from nature, from literature, from society, 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 405 

ever keenly alive to all that touched upon the progress of 
his Master's kingdom, in Italy or elsewhere, ever elastic 
in all intervals, however brief and illusory, of better 
health, it seems as if a border of the mystery were up- 
lifted, and a purpose of holy example revealed, whose 
blessed influence who shall limit or adequately tell ? 

"With me, at all events, remains indelible the impres- 
sion of the last visit I paid to the sufferer. He was alone, 
in bed, prostrate with the weakness left by a long paroxysm 
of pain; it seemed as if he could hardly last to see 
another morning. I had written on his tablets a few words 
of sympathy and recalling the Infinite Father's love, 
which we knew apportioned and mixed every cup of 
suffering. He read slowly, word by word, what I had 
written; then silently seemed to rally his thought, — 
which easily fell off into unconsciousness at every interval, 
so extreme was his weakness, — then in broken utterances 
replied something as follows: 'Yes, He knows — He sees 
in me that which needs such discipline — His will is good 
— He does all things well — His will be done !' I always 
felt myself a better man for any intercourse with Dr. 
Taylor when in health and vigour; but that last testi- 
mony in its sweet humility, its perfected patience and 
submission, will remain with me, a sanctifying memory, 
to my dying day." 

Dr. J. Spotswood Taylor writes: 

"Neither as an orator, writer or metaphysician did my 
father attain distinction. He was perhaps not a pro- 
found scholar. No work remains behind which will 
preserve his name to posterity, and doubtless within a short 



406 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

time it will be forgotten. It is true that he was 
an earnest, forceful speaker, persuading many. He wrote 
so as to give consolation, courage and joy to his readers. 
He reasoned soundly and well, making life's difficult path 
plain and enabling not a few to face the mysteries that 
none can fathom. What knowledge he possessed — and it 
was wide and varied — made for the profit and pleasure 
of a large circle. He had the culture which the pedant 
usually lacks. But none of these things bring fame. His 
claim to greatness lay in something rarer and more 
difficult, in something begotten neither of native talent nor 
the most persistent industry. He had goodness in so large 
a measure that it made him a great man by the noblest 
title. On the scores of men and women with whom he 
came in contact during a long and active life in varied 
climes he left an impression as marked as it was effort- 
less and unconscious. All that was best of him remains 
written in the hearts of his own generation, a vital testi- 
mony more significant than the proudest monument of 
brass or stone. The gentle, irresistible beneficence of good- 
ness overflowed from a heart that loved every living being. 
I do not mean by goodness any ordinary degree of moral 
blamelessness, but something as positive as light radiating 
in every direction, suffusing everything in reach with an 
added glory, an active palpitating goodness that warmed 
and mellowed and sweetened wherever it played; good- 
ness that prompted the noblest deeds and was manifest in 
every word and smile and gesture, penetrating and all 
pervading as an aroma. It was sensible to the proudest 
thinker and the least cultivated intelligence. Malignity 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 407 

and indifference were not proof against it. The spell of 
his amiable, kind and gentle presence held rich and poor. 
The potent charm of his personality drew the wise and 
the foolish." 

In harmony with the foregoing is the following 
extract from a sermon, by a distinguished divine of onr 
day, on "Personal Influence, the Means of Propagating 
the Truth": 

"The men commonly held in popular estimation are 
greatest at a distance; they become small as they are 
approached; but the attraction exerted by unconscious 
holiness is of an urgent and irresistible nature; it per- 
suades the weak, the timid, the wavering, and the inquir- 
ing ; it draws forth the affection and loyalty of all who are 
in a measure like-minded; and over the thoughtless or 
perverse multitude it exercises a sovereign compulsory 
sway, bidding them fear and keep silence, on the ground 
of its own right divine to rule them, — its hereditary 
claim on their obedience, though they understand not the 
principles or counsels of that spirit, which is born, not 
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God." 



INDEX 



A PAGE 

Alleghany College 77 

Allen, L. W 44, 46 

Alexander, Archibald 101 

Alexander, Jas. W 108, 125 

Angus, Joseph 169 

Appleton, W. H 96 

Armstrong, Dr 120, 122 

Atlantic Monthly 279, 364 

Appomattox 298 

B 

Barksdale, W. R 120 

Barron, A. C 150 

Barton-on-Humber 117, 118 

Bastile, Place de la 116 

Biblical Recorder 201 

Bland, Wm. S 13 

Bledsoe, Albert T 18, 19 

Boardman, George 8 

Boatwright, F. W 302 

Bologna, University of 264 

Boyce, J. P 51, 151 

Braxton, Carter 38 

Broadus, Jno. A 21, 22, 50, 57, 167, 191, 242, 297 

Broaddus, Wm. F 21, 22, 167 

Brown, A. B 45 

Buckler, Doctors 331 

Burrows, J. L 30, 46 

Burrows, Lansing 160 

c 

Cabell, James L 18, 100, 106 

Campello, Enrico 224 

Campbell, Laura 129 



410 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

PAGE 

Cantu, C 259 

Cavour, Court 308 

Christian Review 31 

Cocke, Chas. L 12, 61, 301 

Cocke, Miss M. L 350 

Cocorda, 205, 208, 228, 238 

Columbia College 22 

Cook, Thos 244 

Cote, W. N 163 

Curry, J. L. M 95, 204, 296 

D 

Dana, R. H 220 

Davis, John Staige 106, 216 

Davis, N. K 240, 264 

Dickinson, A. E 123, 124, 372 

Di Sanctis, Dr 194 

Duke, F. W 360 

Dunscombe, Major Andrew 9 

E 

Eager, J. H 217, 227, 243, 296 

Earle, A. B 109, 125 

Echols, General John 92 

Emmanuel, Victor 163 

Esquiline Hill 206 

Evangelical Alliance 208, 276, 387 

Ezekiel, Sir Moses 297, 335 

F 

Ferraris, O 231, 276 

Fluvanna Co 14 

Franco-Prussian War 112 

Fuller, Richard 22, 31, 207 

G 

Garibaldi, G 308 

Gason, John 192, 233 

George, Z. Jeter 30 

Gildersleeve, Dr. Basil L 10, 106 

Gill, Everette 352 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 411 

PAGE 

Gregory, O. F 382 

Guicciardini, F 259 

H 

Harper, W. R 248 

"Harraff House" 88 

Harrison, Gessner 18, 19, 51 

Harris, H. H 140, 293 

Hart, John 93, 134 

Hatcher, W. E 94, 265 

Hill, N. B 136, 155 

Hoge, M. D 122, 148, 167 

Hoge, P. C 103 

Hollins Institute 95, 339 

Holmes, Geo. Frederick 106 

Hotel Jefferson 7 

Howell, Morton B 13 

Howell, R. B. C 39 

Hume, Thos., Jr 87 

Hume, Thos., Sr 103 

J 

Jackson, Stonewall 61, 359 

James River 11 

Jefferson, Thomas 17 

Jeter, J. B 16, 22, 164 

Jones, J. Wm 73, 95, 102, 125 

Jones, Silas B 16 

Judson, Edward 197, 198, 204 

K 

Keesee, George W 13 

Kernstown, battle of 76 

L 

Latane, Jas. A 49, 50 

Leo XIII 361 

Lockhart's Scott 207 

Lofton, G. A 320 

Long, George 17 

Long, J. C 146 

Lorimer, J. C 164 



412 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

M PAGE 

Mallet, J. W 106 

Marsh, G. P 181 

Mason, C. R 55, 61, 76, 77, 148, 372 

Maupin, S 100 

Manly, Chas 214, 382 

Memorial Movement 142, 152, 154 

McGuffey, Wm. H 18, 19, 106, 124 

Minor, Jno. B 18, 106 

"Monticello" 18 

Moody, D. L 247 

Mudie Library 308 

N 

Nevin, R. J 181 

New York Observer 209 



Oncken, J. G 38, 93 

P 

Palace of the Caesars 251 

Papengouth, N , 237, 276, 281, 356 

Paschetto, Enrico 231, 252 

Peters, W. E 106, 129 

Peyton, W. H 48, 54, 56, 135 

Pickens, Gov. F. W 65 

Piggott, H 297, 321, 400 

Poindexter, A. M 95, 125 

Puryear, Dr. B 12 

E 

Ragged Mountains 26 

Read, C. H 129 

Rice, A. A 337 

Rice, S. B 45, 47 

Richmond College 12 

Rogers, Wm. B 18 

Rosser, Leonidas 150, 151 

Ryland, Dr. Robert 12, 13, 108 

Ryland, Robert 336 



REV. GEORGE BOARDMAN TAYLOR, D. D. 413 



g PAGE 

Sajous, C. E. de M 371, 379, 380 

Sands, A. H 90, 91 

Scheie de Vere, M 106 

Sears, Bamas 31, 92, 93, 136, 154 

Simmons, Franklin 181 

Slaughter, J. Warren 37, 54 

Smith, F. H 106, 280 

Smith, S. F 31 

Spurgeon, C. H 112 

Sumter, Fort 64 

T 

Taylor, J. H 48 

Taylor, S. F 48, 49 

Thomas, Wm. D 13, 73, 302 

Thompson, W. M 197 

Tupper, H. A 143, 213 

Tyree, C .' 50, 99 

V 

Vallombrosa 324 

Van Meter, W. C 191, 194 

Vaughan, C. J 171 

Venable, C. S 106, 109, 120, 264 

Vernon, Dr 197, 200 

w 

Wake Forest College 322 

Walker, Robert 295, 365 

Wall, Jas 325 

Watchman and Reflector 125 

Washington and Lee University 126 

Whitsitt, W. H 298, 312 

Williams, J. C 110, 302 

Williams, J. W. M 30 

Williams, W. H 108 

Willingham, R. J 302 

Wilson, Franklin 31, 95, 163 

Wilson, N. W 130 

Winchester, Boyd 264 



NOV 28 1908 



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